0:00:05 > 0:00:09Jazz has been hailed as one of the most significant musical forms
0:00:09 > 0:00:13of the 20th-century - America's gift to the world...
0:00:19 > 0:00:24..and the BBC archives contain hundreds of hours of performance
0:00:24 > 0:00:28and interviews with some of the greatest names in American jazz.
0:00:33 > 0:00:34Well, here we are again.
0:00:34 > 0:00:38But it could so easily have been otherwise.
0:00:41 > 0:00:44Towards the end of the 1930s,
0:00:44 > 0:00:48as Hitler's Nazi party tightened its grip on German society,
0:00:48 > 0:00:52the Director-General of the BBC, Lord Reith,
0:00:52 > 0:00:57expressed some sympathy with the regime in one specific matter -
0:00:57 > 0:01:00the music of the moment, known as hot jazz.
0:01:04 > 0:01:08In a memo, he described its influence as "degrading".
0:01:10 > 0:01:15"Germany has banned hot jazz, and I'm sorry that we should be
0:01:15 > 0:01:19"behind in dealing with this filthy product of modernity."
0:01:24 > 0:01:28The very word "jazz" was said to be derived for a slang name
0:01:28 > 0:01:32for sex, and it became a label to an age of excess.
0:01:34 > 0:01:38Luckily for us, Lord Reith didn't have the last word on the subject.
0:01:39 > 0:01:43The BBC, in fact, led the way with coverage of jazz on television.
0:01:52 > 0:01:54From the late '50s to the late '70s,
0:01:54 > 0:01:58one legend after another from the golden age of jazz was captured
0:01:58 > 0:02:02playing and talking about some of the century's greatest music.
0:02:04 > 0:02:09It is not the length and it ain't what you do, it's how you do it.
0:02:16 > 0:02:17That's nice.
0:02:17 > 0:02:19APPLAUSE
0:02:19 > 0:02:22It's fun. My... My thing is having fun.
0:02:27 > 0:02:30From the ever suave Duke Ellington...
0:02:31 > 0:02:32Yep!
0:02:35 > 0:02:37..to the irrepressible Louis Armstrong...
0:02:41 > 0:02:44..to that master of swing Count Basie...
0:02:47 > 0:02:49..to the man who blew in the dazzling new style
0:02:49 > 0:02:52known as bebop, Dizzy Gillespie...
0:02:54 > 0:02:56# Ba-da-ba-da-ba-ba-bada... #
0:02:56 > 0:02:59..and the incomparable Ella Fitzgerald...
0:03:01 > 0:03:04..together, they created a musical revolution.
0:03:04 > 0:03:08This is how they did it in their own words.
0:03:35 > 0:03:37APPLAUSE
0:03:41 > 0:03:46There was no more celebrated jazz survivor and no greater entertainer
0:03:46 > 0:03:49than the man they called Pops - Louis Armstrong.
0:04:02 > 0:04:04For me, the most incredible thing about Louis Armstrong
0:04:04 > 0:04:06is that I listen to lots of his records
0:04:06 > 0:04:08and when I hear him sing a song, I suddenly go,
0:04:08 > 0:04:10"That's a fantastic song,"
0:04:10 > 0:04:12and I'd heard the song before, I might have heard it,
0:04:12 > 0:04:15it might have sort of been in my consciousness but never noticed it,
0:04:15 > 0:04:16but when he does it, I go,
0:04:16 > 0:04:19"That's a great song. I want to play this song now," and that is what
0:04:19 > 0:04:23a great artist is - an artist who basically makes you notice something
0:04:23 > 0:04:26that you hadn't noticed before and brings it to life.
0:04:26 > 0:04:31# Now the pale moon's shining
0:04:32 > 0:04:35# On the fields below
0:04:37 > 0:04:42# The folks are crooning soft and low... #
0:04:43 > 0:04:46No-one had a better pedigree.
0:04:46 > 0:04:49His lips scarred from a lifetime's blowing,
0:04:49 > 0:04:53he's singing about a Deep South that only ever existed in song.
0:04:53 > 0:04:56# When it's sleepy time down south. #
0:04:56 > 0:04:59But he knew the reality.
0:04:59 > 0:05:04After all, he came from where the music came from - New Orleans.
0:05:04 > 0:05:09It was here that the great gumbo mix of African rhythms - ragtime,
0:05:09 > 0:05:13gospel, blues and marching bands - all came together.
0:05:23 > 0:05:26He'd had a brutally hard start in life.
0:05:26 > 0:05:28His mother worked as a prostitute
0:05:28 > 0:05:31and as a boy, Louis had a job delivering coal
0:05:31 > 0:05:33to the brothels or sporting houses
0:05:33 > 0:05:36of the city's notorious Storyville district.
0:05:36 > 0:05:40As he told the BBC in 1970, he kept his eyes and ears open.
0:05:42 > 0:05:44Well, quite naturally,
0:05:44 > 0:05:47they're standing there with nothing on but a chemise,
0:05:47 > 0:05:50what you call them, teddies, at the time, you know,
0:05:50 > 0:05:54so they'd say, "Little boy, put some coal on the grid," you know.
0:05:54 > 0:05:58Quite naturally, I stopped to take a look.
0:05:58 > 0:06:01If they'd seen me, they'd have slapped me down.
0:06:02 > 0:06:07Yeah, I used to do all that. Well, I used to hear all that good music too.
0:06:07 > 0:06:11You could hear the best music there was down there -
0:06:11 > 0:06:13all your best musicians.
0:06:17 > 0:06:20Music came to his rescue.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23The young Louis was sent to the local waifs' home
0:06:23 > 0:06:25for discharging a firearm in the street.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28He was given a bugle to learn, joined the band
0:06:28 > 0:06:30and soon got noticed.
0:06:32 > 0:06:36I was pretty fast on the horn. They used to call me Little Louis.
0:06:36 > 0:06:40And I went up real fast from that.
0:06:40 > 0:06:46That's where I comes to getting on among all the sporting people,
0:06:46 > 0:06:50the women used to come in, big stockings full of money,
0:06:50 > 0:06:54and make me have a bottle of beer with them and...
0:06:56 > 0:07:00Could blow them blues, you know, they liked the way I blowed them blues.
0:07:00 > 0:07:04And then King Oliver thought so much of my blowing so he'd come
0:07:04 > 0:07:09down there when he got off and sit upon the bench and listen to me play.
0:07:09 > 0:07:12He used to tell me all the time, "Play more lead on that horn."
0:07:12 > 0:07:14I was just like... # Da-da-da... #
0:07:14 > 0:07:18..like the guys run up and down the horn nowadays, bopping and things,
0:07:18 > 0:07:22I was doing all of that, fast fingers and everything,
0:07:22 > 0:07:26but he was telling me, "Play some lead on the horn, boy," you know.
0:07:30 > 0:07:32Louis played the river boats,
0:07:32 > 0:07:36but when his hero and father figure, Joe "King" Oliver,
0:07:36 > 0:07:41took his band to Chicago, he soon called for his protege to join him.
0:07:43 > 0:07:45He was following the course of the great migration
0:07:45 > 0:07:50undertaken by thousands of black Americans from the segregated South,
0:07:50 > 0:07:51only in this case,
0:07:51 > 0:07:55it was the start of one of the most fabulous careers in American music.
0:07:58 > 0:08:00In Joe Oliver's band was Lil Hardin,
0:08:00 > 0:08:04a classically trained piano player.
0:08:04 > 0:08:06She would become the second Mrs Armstrong
0:08:06 > 0:08:09and gave Louis the push he needed.
0:08:09 > 0:08:11I told him, I said,
0:08:11 > 0:08:14"Now, I don't want to be married to a second trumpet player."
0:08:14 > 0:08:16He said, "What are you talking about?"
0:08:16 > 0:08:19I said, "I don't want to be married to a second trumpet player,
0:08:19 > 0:08:20"I want you to play first."
0:08:20 > 0:08:22He said, "I can't play first, Joe's playing first."
0:08:22 > 0:08:24I said, "Well, that's why you've got to quit."
0:08:24 > 0:08:27He said, "I can't quit Mr Joe, Mr Joe sent for me
0:08:27 > 0:08:29"and I can't quit him."
0:08:29 > 0:08:31And I said, "Well, it's Mr Joe or me."
0:08:31 > 0:08:33No contest.
0:08:33 > 0:08:37Armstrong left and joined the New York band of Fletcher Henderson,
0:08:37 > 0:08:39and jazz would never be the same again.
0:08:41 > 0:08:44His sense of melody was just
0:08:44 > 0:08:50so captivating, yet there was always a feeling of excitement
0:08:50 > 0:08:51when you'd hear him play.
0:08:51 > 0:08:57And really he's the person where the group interaction of jazz playing
0:08:57 > 0:09:01from the New Orleans-Dixieland traditional style,
0:09:01 > 0:09:05it's where it changed and turned into the soloist.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08He really was the first great soloist.
0:09:12 > 0:09:14To stand on your own two legs
0:09:14 > 0:09:19and suddenly bring the crowd alight with a solo was the thing
0:09:19 > 0:09:20that he started doing
0:09:20 > 0:09:23and by 1928, he was simply wonderful at it.
0:09:23 > 0:09:25Louis trod a very fine line
0:09:25 > 0:09:30between being a popular entertainer, somebody who had enormous appeal
0:09:30 > 0:09:31to the general public,
0:09:31 > 0:09:33both by being an avuncular personality
0:09:33 > 0:09:36and a great singer, a wonderful interpreter of a lyric,
0:09:36 > 0:09:38but, at the same time, he was an artist.
0:09:38 > 0:09:40He was somebody whose every note
0:09:40 > 0:09:42on the trumpet was profound improvisation.
0:09:44 > 0:09:48Louis Armstrong's performance on recordings from the late '20s
0:09:48 > 0:09:51became the blueprints for the future of jazz.
0:09:54 > 0:09:56And he'd always save enough
0:09:56 > 0:09:58to play the high note at the end.
0:09:58 > 0:10:00So there'd be this great form that he had,
0:10:00 > 0:10:02this natural form,
0:10:02 > 0:10:06he wouldn't play too many high notes before that very one at the end
0:10:06 > 0:10:09so it did have maximum impact at the end.
0:10:09 > 0:10:12SUCCESSION OF NOTES
0:10:12 > 0:10:13HIGH NOTE
0:10:15 > 0:10:17Of course, he got the great West End Blues cadenza
0:10:17 > 0:10:20which is at the beginning.
0:10:20 > 0:10:22For once, he turns it upside down,
0:10:22 > 0:10:26so the beginning of West End Blues goes something like this.
0:10:47 > 0:10:50It's just fantastic stuff that no-one had done before,
0:10:50 > 0:10:56so the combination of this melodic, harmonic invention plus the sound.
0:11:00 > 0:11:04Louis' first movie appearance was astonishing too,
0:11:04 > 0:11:08in a bizarre short in which he performed a song called Shine.
0:11:08 > 0:11:09Louis is
0:11:09 > 0:11:13seen as a character in a dream of somebody
0:11:13 > 0:11:18who's hit on the head and we go to a mythical heaven in which
0:11:18 > 0:11:21this group of African-American musicians is playing
0:11:21 > 0:11:25and we see Louis himself, a very fit man wearing a leopard skin...
0:11:25 > 0:11:28# My hair is curly
0:11:28 > 0:11:30# Just because
0:11:30 > 0:11:32# My teeth are pearly... #
0:11:32 > 0:11:35Shine might be a racist lyric, "Just cos my hair is curly,
0:11:35 > 0:11:37"Just cos my teeth are pearly,"
0:11:37 > 0:11:39but, on the other hand, Louis dignifies it.
0:11:39 > 0:11:42# Just because my colour's shady
0:11:42 > 0:11:45# Makes a difference maybe
0:11:45 > 0:11:47# That's why they call me shine... #
0:12:06 > 0:12:08I don't think he's miming in that clip.
0:12:08 > 0:12:10We're actually hearing what he's playing
0:12:10 > 0:12:13and what he's playing is instant creation.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27Very few characters combine a sense that
0:12:27 > 0:12:30you're in the presence of art being created with every note,
0:12:30 > 0:12:35but, at the same time, accessible and somebody who reaches out
0:12:35 > 0:12:38and connects with the person in the street, and I think
0:12:38 > 0:12:41Louis does that better than anybody in the entire history of jazz.
0:12:43 > 0:12:45By the early '30s, although Louis
0:12:45 > 0:12:49was at the top of his game musically, he had other worries.
0:12:49 > 0:12:54He'd been arrested for possession of marijuana in California and
0:12:54 > 0:12:58gangsters from Chicago and New York were wrangling over his contract.
0:12:58 > 0:13:02To escape, his manager booked a tour to Europe.
0:13:02 > 0:13:07He arrived in style and gained a nickname - Satchmo.
0:13:16 > 0:13:21Louis' concerts at the London Palladium provoked mixed reactions.
0:13:21 > 0:13:23Some walked out.
0:13:23 > 0:13:26This film from that period shows the style wilder
0:13:26 > 0:13:29than many record fans were expecting.
0:13:29 > 0:13:32One newspaper compared him to James Joyce,
0:13:32 > 0:13:34another to an untrained gorilla.
0:13:34 > 0:13:36# Now, Dinah
0:13:36 > 0:13:38# Is there anyone finer
0:13:38 > 0:13:39# In the state of Carolina?
0:13:39 > 0:13:41# If there is, then you know
0:13:41 > 0:13:42# Show her to me... #
0:13:42 > 0:13:46But the important thing was, the young man from New Orleans
0:13:46 > 0:13:49was on the way to becoming an international star.
0:13:52 > 0:13:56He would revisit Europe many times over the next four decades,
0:13:56 > 0:13:59where enthusiastic journalists waited to greet him.
0:13:59 > 0:14:00SWITCHES RECORDING OFF
0:14:02 > 0:14:04And we are very, very glad, Mr Armstrong,
0:14:04 > 0:14:07to welcome you into Panorama this evening. I hope you enjoyed
0:14:07 > 0:14:09- listening to that just now. - It's good to be here.
0:14:09 > 0:14:12- Thank you. - Always good to come to England.
0:14:12 > 0:14:14Now, with you, is Kenneth Allsop of the Daily Mail.
0:14:14 > 0:14:16Kenneth Allsop knows a lot more about jazz than I do
0:14:16 > 0:14:19and you are now his victim for the next seven minutes.
0:14:19 > 0:14:23- Well, let's sit down and make ourselves comfortable, Louis.- OK.
0:14:23 > 0:14:25- It's good to see you back in London again.- Oh, yeah.
0:14:25 > 0:14:30- Always say, bless the British.- I see Mrs Armstrong is with you.- Hi again.
0:14:30 > 0:14:31- Hello.- How are you?
0:14:31 > 0:14:34Mrs Armstrong, do you always go with Louis wherever he goes?
0:14:34 > 0:14:37- Yes, I do, Kenneth. - It's your job to look after him.
0:14:37 > 0:14:41Well, that's part of my marital vows, to take care of the husband.
0:14:46 > 0:14:50Through the '50s and '60s, Louis became a proud ambassador
0:14:50 > 0:14:54for America, even travelling to Africa to spread the word of jazz.
0:14:56 > 0:14:59Do you feel that jazz is a universal language?
0:14:59 > 0:15:02Do you think it overcomes politics and nationalities?
0:15:02 > 0:15:04Oh, yes, it's stronger than the Masons - jazz.
0:15:04 > 0:15:07Everywhere you've been, have you found people like jazz?
0:15:07 > 0:15:10That's right. I mean, we couldn't say nothing in their language,
0:15:10 > 0:15:12but every time we start wailing, that was it.
0:15:12 > 0:15:14We didn't have to worry about nothing then.
0:15:14 > 0:15:18Louis Armstrong was a buoyant character
0:15:18 > 0:15:21and he very much saw himself as an entertainer,
0:15:21 > 0:15:25so entertaining was what he was about,
0:15:25 > 0:15:30but I think with any entertainer who becomes extremely popular,
0:15:30 > 0:15:35and he became extremely popular, there's always a backlash
0:15:35 > 0:15:37and he suffered from that backlash.
0:15:37 > 0:15:41- Are you still playing the same kind of music now as you played...- Why...
0:15:41 > 0:15:47Why should I change? I originated all this whatever it is derived from.
0:15:47 > 0:15:49Why should I play anything different?
0:15:49 > 0:15:53Do you think your warm and emotional kind of entertaining can make
0:15:53 > 0:15:57- better friends between black and white people?- I think so.
0:15:57 > 0:16:01I mean, I'm black and I have a lot of white fans...
0:16:02 > 0:16:06..so you've got it in technicolour there.
0:16:08 > 0:16:12By the 1960s, a new kind of political confrontation over
0:16:12 > 0:16:16civil rights, and a new generation of jazz musicians were making
0:16:16 > 0:16:20Satchmo style seem more outdated than ever.
0:16:20 > 0:16:22# Oh, man
0:16:22 > 0:16:23# Oh, man
0:16:23 > 0:16:24# Ba-da-ba-dap
0:16:24 > 0:16:26# Of every toots
0:16:26 > 0:16:28# It went like this
0:16:28 > 0:16:30# Oh, yes
0:16:30 > 0:16:32# Take a wrap, fellas
0:16:32 > 0:16:35# Find her an empty lap, yeah
0:16:35 > 0:16:37# Oh, Dolly
0:16:37 > 0:16:40# Oh, Dolly, doh-doh-doh
0:16:41 > 0:16:46# Ba-dah! #
0:16:49 > 0:16:53White people are responsible for my success,
0:16:53 > 0:16:56and I don't care how much they march, I mean,
0:16:56 > 0:17:01after all, white people stood behind Sats to put him
0:17:01 > 0:17:04right where he is, so you know I've got the love of them,
0:17:04 > 0:17:07ain't nobody going to tell me nothing.
0:17:07 > 0:17:12I said in my donations for the cause of whatever they're doing,
0:17:12 > 0:17:15you know, with the Negroes to the extent,
0:17:15 > 0:17:19but the Negro didn't put me where I am today, the white people did.
0:17:19 > 0:17:21Whites did.
0:17:21 > 0:17:27So now on the rebound, the credit goes to the white people.
0:17:28 > 0:17:30Period.
0:17:30 > 0:17:33Louis said at a fairly early stage in his life
0:17:33 > 0:17:37that what a black entertainer should do, for his own security,
0:17:37 > 0:17:40was to have a well-connected white man
0:17:40 > 0:17:42standing by him who would put his hand -
0:17:42 > 0:17:45this is how he put it - who would put his hand on his shoulder
0:17:45 > 0:17:50and say, "This is my N word," which I'm not going to say,
0:17:50 > 0:17:55and, of course, that was right at the time, if you wanted to look
0:17:55 > 0:17:59after yourself and get on, and he'd been treated in that way
0:17:59 > 0:18:02in New Orleans well, so it was experience that told him that.
0:18:02 > 0:18:05Succeeding generations did not want to hear that
0:18:05 > 0:18:10and so he would get into trouble, PC-type trouble, later in life
0:18:10 > 0:18:13and it became attached to his performing style as well
0:18:13 > 0:18:16because there was the grinning and the mugging
0:18:16 > 0:18:20and the handkerchief-waving and so on and all that seemed to attach
0:18:20 > 0:18:24to a very old, almost Minstrel era view of what a performer should be.
0:18:28 > 0:18:31Louis Armstrong left his mark on the world of music
0:18:31 > 0:18:34and on everyone who ever met him.
0:18:34 > 0:18:36BOY PLAYS "Basin Street Blues"
0:18:41 > 0:18:461968 - Louis comes to England and my father takes me to the airport
0:18:46 > 0:18:50to meet him, as he walks over, I start playing Basin Street Blues
0:18:50 > 0:18:55for him and you can see here the pictures.
0:18:55 > 0:18:57He's got his tongue out there.
0:18:57 > 0:18:59He's going, "Look at this little kid here,"
0:18:59 > 0:19:05so...he stands and listens and actually bends down
0:19:05 > 0:19:07and puts his hand to his ear.
0:19:07 > 0:19:11I mean, great encouragement there and afterwards he takes my hand
0:19:11 > 0:19:14and I think, "He's going to shake my hand," but, no, what did he do?
0:19:14 > 0:19:18There, he picks it up and kisses my hand, which is
0:19:18 > 0:19:22a fantastic sort of gesture, again, of a genuine man.
0:19:22 > 0:19:24HE CHUCKLES
0:19:24 > 0:19:26That was it.
0:19:26 > 0:19:29You couldn't want a better start in life if you wanted to play
0:19:29 > 0:19:33the trumpet, meet Louis Armstrong, your hero, at the age of seven.
0:19:33 > 0:19:35It was a great start.
0:19:44 > 0:19:47If Satchmo was the great entertainer, another man would
0:19:47 > 0:19:51take the music to even higher levels of sophistication and artistry...
0:19:53 > 0:19:55..a jazz legend that had the interviewers
0:19:55 > 0:19:58reaching for their superlatives.
0:19:58 > 0:20:00It seems indisputable that Duke Ellington occupies
0:20:00 > 0:20:03the same sort of position in the world of jazz as Bradman used to
0:20:03 > 0:20:07in the world of cricket or Picasso does in the world of painting. He's the unchallengeable master.
0:20:07 > 0:20:10His name oughtn't to be Duke Ellington but King Ellington.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13Along with Cocteau, Chaplin, Picasso, Hemingway and Orson Welles,
0:20:13 > 0:20:17he shared an international reputation that can never be tarnished.
0:20:17 > 0:20:21He's also been described as one of the greatest living composers,
0:20:21 > 0:20:24or the only great living American composer.
0:20:24 > 0:20:27If anyone could handle that kind of introduction,
0:20:27 > 0:20:30it was Edward Kennedy Ellington, the Duke.
0:20:30 > 0:20:32Thanks so very much, ladies and gentlemen.
0:20:32 > 0:20:37All the kids in the band want you to know that we do love you madly.
0:20:37 > 0:20:41Worldly, elegant, almost mockingly creative,
0:20:41 > 0:20:43the Duke was charm personified.
0:20:44 > 0:20:48He was an indulged child of middle-class parents in Washington DC.
0:20:49 > 0:20:53His father worked occasionally as a butler in the White House, so it was
0:20:53 > 0:20:58with some satisfaction that he was honoured there on his 70th birthday.
0:20:58 > 0:21:00In the royalty of American music,
0:21:00 > 0:21:06no man swings more or stands higher than the Duke.
0:21:06 > 0:21:10MUSIC: "Take the 'A' Train" By Duke Ellington
0:21:11 > 0:21:15His achievement comes not from his virtuosity at the piano,
0:21:15 > 0:21:18but the musical legacy of his famous orchestra,
0:21:18 > 0:21:22which he kept on the road for over half a century.
0:21:22 > 0:21:28He left behind over 5,000 pieces of music on his death in 1974.
0:21:29 > 0:21:31He graduated as a commercial artist,
0:21:31 > 0:21:34even had a business as a sign painter,
0:21:34 > 0:21:38but his part-time activities as a pianist and bandleader were so successful
0:21:38 > 0:21:42he set off for New York to make his fortune in the music business.
0:21:47 > 0:21:52By 1927, he had the hottest band in Harlem,
0:21:52 > 0:21:54broadcasting nightly, coast to coast,
0:21:54 > 0:21:56from the notorious Cotton Club.
0:21:56 > 0:21:59- ANNOUNCER:- Hello, everybody, welcome to our famous Cotton Club.
0:21:59 > 0:22:03Great to see so many friends here tonight enjoying themselves in spite of the cover charge,
0:22:03 > 0:22:06and if you can spare a minute from your merrymaking,
0:22:06 > 0:22:08I'd like to have the pleasure of introducing
0:22:08 > 0:22:10the greatest living master of jungle music,
0:22:10 > 0:22:13the rip-roaring harmony hound, Duke Ellington.
0:22:13 > 0:22:14Take your bow, Dukie!
0:22:21 > 0:22:26The jungle is a place I've always had an inclination toward,
0:22:26 > 0:22:28because nobody's ever been to the jungle.
0:22:31 > 0:22:33The Cotton Club was for whites only.
0:22:33 > 0:22:38The audience came uptown for a night of walking on the wild side.
0:22:38 > 0:22:42He treated his band as a theatrical troupe.
0:22:42 > 0:22:46He didn't so much appoint musicians as cast them as characters,
0:22:46 > 0:22:50and they all had to have a strong instrumental character themselves.
0:22:52 > 0:22:56Ellington evoked the sounds of this fantasy jungle by employing
0:22:56 > 0:22:59the talents of a trumpeter called Bubber Miley.
0:23:00 > 0:23:06Bubber Miley, he was the first one to do a jungle sound with a plunger.
0:23:06 > 0:23:08Now, if I can get a cup...
0:23:15 > 0:23:19So, imagine that's a plunger, so he'd be able to do...
0:23:19 > 0:23:25PLAYS BLUES MELODY
0:23:27 > 0:23:31And then he'd put a growl with it. So this is how they found out,
0:23:31 > 0:23:34they just tried things over the bell, you know?
0:23:34 > 0:23:37PLAYS WITH GROWLS AND WAHS
0:23:47 > 0:23:51The Duke's appeal to white audiences made him a natural for the movies.
0:23:56 > 0:23:59But Hollywood didn't dare to feature an integrated band,
0:23:59 > 0:24:03so the lighter-skinned trombonist on the right had to be blacked up.
0:24:13 > 0:24:16APPLAUSE
0:24:24 > 0:24:26Hey, man, I like that piano player! LAUGHTER
0:24:26 > 0:24:28He's hot. He's a hot kid.
0:24:28 > 0:24:31Duke Ellington was two things.
0:24:31 > 0:24:32He was a very creative composer,
0:24:32 > 0:24:38and he was one of the most astonishingly astute magpies in jazz history.
0:24:38 > 0:24:42He could spot 16 bars of melody that would work very well with
0:24:42 > 0:24:44another 16 bars that he'd just written,
0:24:44 > 0:24:48and there's a degree of controversy about the degree to which
0:24:48 > 0:24:52he "stole" from his sidemen, but there's certainly no doubt that
0:24:52 > 0:24:55tunes that they'd done nothing with, he worked out how to package
0:24:55 > 0:24:58and present in an extremely successful way.
0:24:58 > 0:25:02Mr Dankworth, Mr Lyttelton, the floor is yours.
0:25:02 > 0:25:05- Duke, we...- Good morning, gentlemen.- Good morning.
0:25:05 > 0:25:07We live on legends over here.
0:25:07 > 0:25:13There are a great many legends about as to how you have composed your tunes in the past.
0:25:13 > 0:25:16If it's not asking a trade secret, how do you like to compose?
0:25:16 > 0:25:18How do I like to?
0:25:18 > 0:25:22Oh, any way at all, just so it comes out sounding interesting enough.
0:25:22 > 0:25:26- Do you compose at the piano, for instance?- Sometimes.
0:25:26 > 0:25:28And then again I do a lot of writing on...
0:25:28 > 0:25:32I think doing it on trains is one of the best ways. So many times in bed.
0:25:32 > 0:25:36You know, you get an idea, and no matter how tired you are,
0:25:36 > 0:25:40you have to put the light on and reach over and maybe... You know.
0:25:40 > 0:25:43Or sometimes a tune just comes into you, knocks you down,
0:25:43 > 0:25:46you can't resist it, you just have to put it down.
0:25:46 > 0:25:52And usually it associates itself with some specific performer in the band.
0:25:52 > 0:25:55MUSIC: "Mood Indigo"
0:26:07 > 0:26:11Ellington evolved a sound of using muted brass
0:26:11 > 0:26:14and the clarinet, in fact, to make a kind of music
0:26:14 > 0:26:18he kept through his whole career called mood music,
0:26:18 > 0:26:23which is very harmonically sophisticated, yet simple sounding, melodically.
0:26:23 > 0:26:25Melodies such as Mood Indigo.
0:26:25 > 0:26:29Mood Indigo is like a swan on the pond, because it just
0:26:29 > 0:26:32moves along and all you see is this beautiful tune going slowly past,
0:26:32 > 0:26:35but of course the harmonic flippers underneath
0:26:35 > 0:26:38are kicking like crazy to keep it all moving.
0:26:40 > 0:26:44In the winter of 1965, the Duke Ellington Orchestra was
0:26:44 > 0:26:48filmed by the BBC on an extensive European tour.
0:26:48 > 0:26:53Their non-stop travelling had been a feature of the band's existence since the '30s.
0:26:57 > 0:27:00Night after night after night, different town, different town.
0:27:00 > 0:27:05Tough economy seats, ratty old buses, cold.
0:27:05 > 0:27:06What were they eating?
0:27:06 > 0:27:10Were they allowed through the front door? They have to come round the back?
0:27:10 > 0:27:13What was the race situation? I mean... Yeah - travelling? Tough.
0:27:13 > 0:27:14It's not for sissies.
0:27:27 > 0:27:31I mean, let me tell you this, folks, if you decide to run a band,
0:27:31 > 0:27:34you're going to upset some of your musicians.
0:27:34 > 0:27:36You know, even if it's over something silly like,
0:27:36 > 0:27:38what time are we all going to have our meal?
0:27:38 > 0:27:40Somebody is not going to like it.
0:27:40 > 0:27:45So, at any stage during running a band, you'll get called
0:27:45 > 0:27:50what would come out in predictive text as the word "aunt" by your musicians.
0:27:55 > 0:27:56Johnny and I are both bandleaders.
0:27:56 > 0:27:59What is the secret of keeping a band together for as long as you do?
0:27:59 > 0:28:03Well, you've got to have a gimmick, Humphrey, it's...
0:28:03 > 0:28:06The one I use... I mean, I use a gimmick, you know?
0:28:06 > 0:28:07Just give 'em money.
0:28:07 > 0:28:10LAUGHTER
0:28:12 > 0:28:14Yes, I can see that's very popular.
0:28:22 > 0:28:25- JOOLS HOLLAND:- A big band becomes an animal in itself
0:28:25 > 0:28:28and it's one that has to be fed with new music.
0:28:28 > 0:28:32What keeps it alive is having new music and having to do shows,
0:28:32 > 0:28:35and recording in between that. So it becomes a living entity.
0:28:35 > 0:28:38But it can only live by doing lots of shows.
0:28:38 > 0:28:40If he couldn't tour, there's nothing else.
0:28:40 > 0:28:43That's what the life of a big band is, is touring.
0:28:44 > 0:28:46Sometimes you say, well, I know these guys are going to
0:28:46 > 0:28:50be dead after making this 500-mile ride tonight when they get in.
0:28:50 > 0:28:54And they get in there and they come up and they get a dark on their face,
0:28:54 > 0:28:55you know, and they growl, maybe,
0:28:55 > 0:28:58and then they blow right up through the ceiling,
0:28:58 > 0:28:59better than ever, you know?
0:29:04 > 0:29:08Ellington's life is a series of paradoxes.
0:29:08 > 0:29:12He's somebody who's a composer and a bandleader,
0:29:12 > 0:29:14a pianist and a private man,
0:29:14 > 0:29:18a serial philanderer, and a married man.
0:29:18 > 0:29:22All these things add up together to make a complex personality
0:29:22 > 0:29:25which he very successfully concealed for a lot of his life.
0:29:25 > 0:29:28And one of the most successful ways of concealing a double,
0:29:28 > 0:29:32duple, triple, quintuple set of layers
0:29:32 > 0:29:35is to go on the road, because everywhere you turn up,
0:29:35 > 0:29:38you are presenting that persona that you've carefully built up
0:29:38 > 0:29:42for yourself to your audience, and the private man stays private.
0:29:42 > 0:29:45Have you ever... Have you ever felt the need or indeed done it,
0:29:45 > 0:29:49what a lot of jazz musicians do when they get into a sort of tiring routine,
0:29:49 > 0:29:52of taking dope or anything like that? Have you ever done that?
0:29:52 > 0:29:55No. I'm too primitive, you see. I'm very primitive.
0:29:55 > 0:30:00I am THE primitive illiterate, you see, because... LAUGHTER
0:30:00 > 0:30:03I mean, so much so that I don't even know what I'm going to
0:30:03 > 0:30:07have for breakfast until in the morning, or whenever I wake-up,
0:30:07 > 0:30:09I walk into the jungle.
0:30:09 > 0:30:13And if I see a twig on this side of the tree, and a bear on that side,
0:30:13 > 0:30:17I have to decide whether I want a big meal or a little meal, you know?
0:30:17 > 0:30:19LAUGHTER
0:30:19 > 0:30:23And, of course, if you have the bear, of course, you have the advantage
0:30:23 > 0:30:26of having a coat to wear for the cold season, too.
0:30:26 > 0:30:28Mm. I'm not sure I quite understand that, but...
0:30:28 > 0:30:31LAUGHTER
0:30:31 > 0:30:34Well, you're civilised, you see?
0:30:34 > 0:30:40And now one of the segments of our new Impressions Of The Far East suite.
0:30:40 > 0:30:45The scene is Isfahan, the solo by Johnny Hodges.
0:30:45 > 0:30:47APPLAUSE
0:30:47 > 0:30:50Over the years, the Duke's writing became more artful,
0:30:50 > 0:30:54more about getting people to listen than dance.
0:30:54 > 0:30:57Each extensive foreign tour gave the magpie Duke
0:30:57 > 0:31:02new sights, sounds and impressionist fragments to play with.
0:31:02 > 0:31:06They were constructed into long-form, loosely structured suites.
0:31:06 > 0:31:11MUSIC: "Isfahan"
0:31:52 > 0:31:56What Duke Ellington was doing was creating a music that was
0:31:56 > 0:32:01really born out of the 20th century, the sound of the 20th century,
0:32:01 > 0:32:04the atmosphere of the 20th century.
0:32:04 > 0:32:07And so, Duke Ellington is really
0:32:07 > 0:32:13one of the great originators, musically, beyond category.
0:32:13 > 0:32:14A-one, two...
0:32:14 > 0:32:16BAND PLAYS
0:32:19 > 0:32:24Well, this is Jones, taken from our latest single record.
0:32:24 > 0:32:26And it's a little...
0:32:26 > 0:32:30A little melody written for the purpose of giving background
0:32:30 > 0:32:33to gentle and cool finger-snapping.
0:32:34 > 0:32:39Of course, one never snaps one's fingers on the beat.
0:32:39 > 0:32:42It's considered aggressive.
0:32:42 > 0:32:46You don't push it, you just let it fall, like this.
0:32:47 > 0:32:50And of course, if you're real cool,
0:32:50 > 0:32:56then you can manage to effect a tilt of the left earlobe at the same time, like this, you know?
0:32:56 > 0:33:00And if you're cooler than that, then, of course,
0:33:00 > 0:33:02you tilt the left earlobe on the beat
0:33:02 > 0:33:05and snap the finger on the after beat, like this, you know?
0:33:05 > 0:33:08As a matter of fact, by routining the tilting of the earlobe
0:33:08 > 0:33:11and snapping the finger, one can become as cool as one wishes to be.
0:33:16 > 0:33:18In 1930s America,
0:33:18 > 0:33:23jazz became a national obsession thanks to something called swing.
0:33:23 > 0:33:26It was a dance craze, a teen phenomenon,
0:33:26 > 0:33:29and a commercial sensation, examined by the newsreel,
0:33:29 > 0:33:32The March Of Time, in its inimitable style.
0:33:32 > 0:33:36NEWSREADER: Every day into music shops from coast to coast
0:33:36 > 0:33:42go more and more customers, all for the same thing - the latest in swing music.
0:33:45 > 0:33:49The joint was jumping for black and white audiences alike.
0:33:49 > 0:33:52One of the most celebrated bands had come up the hard way
0:33:52 > 0:33:56from jazz's Wild West, Kansas City.
0:33:57 > 0:34:01The film Reveille With Beverly showed them in a sophisticated setting
0:34:01 > 0:34:04with an easy swing and a front man of unusual charisma.
0:34:20 > 0:34:24Of all the jazz musicians who preferred to let their music do the talking,
0:34:24 > 0:34:27this man said the most with the least.
0:34:36 > 0:34:39He started out in the bars of Harlem where he was an avid student
0:34:39 > 0:34:44of Fats Waller, and ended up as jazz aristocracy.
0:34:47 > 0:34:50William Basie was born in New Jersey,
0:34:50 > 0:34:54toured the vaudeville circuit, and ended up in Kansas City
0:34:54 > 0:34:57where he honed his blues-infused style.
0:34:58 > 0:35:02The big difference between him and the eastern big bands is that
0:35:02 > 0:35:05whereas Duke Ellington was playing for floor shows in the Cotton Club,
0:35:05 > 0:35:07and there was a very quick turnaround,
0:35:07 > 0:35:10you played six or seven numbers in a half hour set,
0:35:10 > 0:35:12then you are off and another band came on,
0:35:12 > 0:35:15Basie was used to playing for hours and hours and hours.
0:35:15 > 0:35:18His band would be the only one, and it would go on all night.
0:35:35 > 0:35:37Basie always looked cool,
0:35:37 > 0:35:41and I think the reason for that is if he played frenetically for these
0:35:41 > 0:35:45hours of late-night jam sessions in Kansas City, he'd be dead.
0:35:45 > 0:35:50As it was, the band developed a very relaxed four-to-the-bar swing
0:35:50 > 0:35:55in which the propulsion is shared equally between bass, drums, guitar and piano.
0:35:55 > 0:35:57And Basie had that down to a fine art.
0:36:04 > 0:36:09I think one of the great attributes of Count Basie's band is just
0:36:09 > 0:36:15the unadulterated soulful swingingness of the band.
0:36:15 > 0:36:19The rhythm that they... That they conjure.
0:36:19 > 0:36:26The sense of blues feeling, and just the hipness. I mean, it's just...
0:36:26 > 0:36:29It's staggering, it's absolutely staggering.
0:36:29 > 0:36:34And all from this man who is genteel and polite and, you know,
0:36:34 > 0:36:39says many things with very few notes.
0:36:39 > 0:36:41It's just...awesome.
0:36:55 > 0:36:56I love Count Basie.
0:36:56 > 0:36:59The great thing about him is just whenever he plays, you can
0:36:59 > 0:37:02spot it him. I know it's him a mile off. That's why I love it.
0:37:02 > 0:37:04It's just, suddenly, the whole thing sort of...
0:37:04 > 0:37:06You don't know why, but as soon as he's doing it,
0:37:06 > 0:37:09you're just going like this, and you can't figure out...
0:37:09 > 0:37:10A lot of the time, he's not even playing!
0:37:10 > 0:37:12But because he's there, he's going like that.
0:37:12 > 0:37:15He does one thing, and keeps it going like that, you know?
0:37:15 > 0:37:18That's the great thing, him leaving these great gaps. Marvellous.
0:37:22 > 0:37:25And everything is just so kind of lazy and perfect,
0:37:25 > 0:37:29it just kind of makes you giddy with wanting to swing, you know?
0:37:29 > 0:37:31It's a master of swing, that's what Count Basie is.
0:37:31 > 0:37:34When you're listened other people playing jazz,
0:37:34 > 0:37:38- have you got any particular preference?- Well, I like any...
0:37:38 > 0:37:43Any type of music that, to me, has a little beat with it.
0:37:43 > 0:37:47You know, whether it's jazz, swing, modern, rock 'n' roll...
0:37:47 > 0:37:48You like rock 'n' roll?
0:37:48 > 0:37:52Isn't anything wrong with it, because I've been hearing rock 'n' roll
0:37:52 > 0:37:55ever since I've been knowing what music is. Music with a beat,
0:37:55 > 0:38:00I guess that they've added a little roll to it, or rock with it,
0:38:00 > 0:38:03by the different little vocals and things that's been happening.
0:38:03 > 0:38:07As far as the beat is concerned, that's been happening for many, many years.
0:38:07 > 0:38:10- It's just not new? - I don't think the beat's new, really.
0:38:12 > 0:38:15- Got it.- Yes.- Fine.
0:38:15 > 0:38:19Basie was a gentler, more self-effacing man than Ellington.
0:38:19 > 0:38:23While there are books and books and books of Ellington quotes,
0:38:23 > 0:38:25I don't think I know a single Count Basie bon mot.
0:38:32 > 0:38:35Probably the two most famous orchestras of all time
0:38:35 > 0:38:39would be your orchestra and Duke's orchestra.
0:38:39 > 0:38:41BASIE PLAYS PIANO CHORD
0:38:43 > 0:38:45LAUGHTER
0:38:47 > 0:38:49All right...
0:38:49 > 0:38:52What would you say was the difference? What would you...?
0:38:52 > 0:38:55- What are your impressions of the difference between the two bands? - Class.
0:38:55 > 0:39:01Class. LAUGHTER
0:39:06 > 0:39:12- The master.- Really?- That was the man. That was the man. He was the boss.
0:39:12 > 0:39:16- You did play together at one point. - Yes, we did.- Really?
0:39:16 > 0:39:17I was in the hall.
0:39:17 > 0:39:22LAUGHTER
0:39:22 > 0:39:26That's right. It's beautiful. The greatest.
0:39:26 > 0:39:27Well, I know how he loves your...
0:39:27 > 0:39:31It was a pleasure and an honour to be in the same hall with the Duke.
0:39:32 > 0:39:35What more can I say? Don't ask me any more about it.
0:39:35 > 0:39:37LAUGHTER
0:39:41 > 0:39:44In the 1940s came the revolution.
0:39:48 > 0:39:52Bebop broke all the rules of conventional melody and rhythm.
0:39:54 > 0:39:58One of its pioneers was a virtuoso trumpeter called Dizzy Gillespie.
0:39:58 > 0:40:01FAST TEMPO BIGBAND BEBOP
0:40:11 > 0:40:17His unique, frenetic style horrified some and enthralled others.
0:40:17 > 0:40:20TRUMPET SOLO
0:40:24 > 0:40:26Any record with Dizzy Gillespie, for me,
0:40:26 > 0:40:31still often sounds the most exciting trumpet playing ever.
0:40:32 > 0:40:37I think Dizzy's ability to play thousands of notes in a minute
0:40:37 > 0:40:39and know what each one was was second to none.
0:40:53 > 0:40:56I can remember the first time I heard Dizzy Gillespie playing.
0:40:56 > 0:41:00That was like being punched in the face with music, it was incredible,
0:41:00 > 0:41:03and that's done me ever since, really.
0:41:03 > 0:41:05I still haven't finished eating that big pie.
0:41:08 > 0:41:12It's funny that although bebop really happened in the early 1940s,
0:41:12 > 0:41:15something that was born 70 years ago still causes controversy
0:41:15 > 0:41:19and is still thought of by some listeners as modern.
0:41:19 > 0:41:21In my view, bebop is a very natural evolution.
0:41:21 > 0:41:24It's a word that Dizzy Gillespie applied to it a lot.
0:41:24 > 0:41:28And it is an evolution of music from people who had simply played
0:41:28 > 0:41:31so much of it they wanted somewhere else to go.
0:41:31 > 0:41:34So now is the moment you change the chords, you change the rhythm,
0:41:34 > 0:41:36and you play differently.
0:41:40 > 0:41:44The bebop experiment began in Manhattan, with musicians
0:41:44 > 0:41:48from the big bands coming together in after-hours jam sessions.
0:41:48 > 0:41:51It reached its critical mass when Gillespie began playing with
0:41:51 > 0:41:54the legendary sax player Charlie Parker.
0:42:00 > 0:42:05My style developed rapidly after meeting Charlie Parker,
0:42:05 > 0:42:07after being inspired by him,
0:42:07 > 0:42:11and the same thing held true with Charlie Parker and me.
0:42:11 > 0:42:15TRUMPET AND SAXOPHONE PLAY IN UNISON
0:42:25 > 0:42:28My main contribution is rhythm, for one thing.
0:42:28 > 0:42:34I created a lot of different rhythms from South America
0:42:34 > 0:42:40and put it into the music, and also chord progressions.
0:42:40 > 0:42:45I showed all the piano players how to play for us, not for the older guys.
0:42:45 > 0:42:48You know - "oom-cha, oom-cha, oom-cha".
0:42:48 > 0:42:52Charlie Parker developed mostly a selection of notes
0:42:52 > 0:42:56and the way that he played the notes, with the accent,
0:42:56 > 0:43:00sounded like a rivet, you know? The way that he...
0:43:00 > 0:43:06Some slurred and some attacked, and that's the basis of our music.
0:43:06 > 0:43:09SAXOPHONE AND TRUMPET TRADE FAST SOLOS
0:43:21 > 0:43:25We were very close, we felt one another.
0:43:25 > 0:43:29Like, one time I said that when his heart beat the first beat,
0:43:29 > 0:43:33mine beat the second beat, and his beat the third, mine beat the fourth.
0:43:33 > 0:43:34You know, the heartbeats.
0:43:34 > 0:43:38It was just a very close relationship.
0:43:38 > 0:43:44And not long. You see, it wasn't a long, long drawn-out thing.
0:43:44 > 0:43:48It was very intense and short.
0:43:48 > 0:43:51Which is like the...
0:43:53 > 0:44:00It's not the length of... It ain't what you do, it's how you do it.
0:44:02 > 0:44:04Bebop even had its own uniform,
0:44:04 > 0:44:08an arty nod to Parisian style devised by Gillespie himself.
0:44:10 > 0:44:16We did this concert, and anybody that came to the concert
0:44:16 > 0:44:21with a beret and a goatee and horn-rimmed glasses,
0:44:21 > 0:44:23they got in free.
0:44:23 > 0:44:27You should have seen the people there with horn-rimmed glasses,
0:44:27 > 0:44:30and some of the women painted a goatee here.
0:44:38 > 0:44:41Jazz had changed fundamentally.
0:44:41 > 0:44:45It would now always be before and after bebop.
0:44:59 > 0:45:05The impact of bebop was that the virtuosity and the soulfulness
0:45:05 > 0:45:12of the music was able to be fused into yet another dimension.
0:45:22 > 0:45:25It was also about small-band interaction,
0:45:25 > 0:45:29which then would allow the music that we know as
0:45:29 > 0:45:32the more modern forms of jazz to be built.
0:45:34 > 0:45:39Experimental modern jazz went on to flourish in small clubs.
0:45:39 > 0:45:42Mainstream jazz found home on Jazz 625
0:45:42 > 0:45:48on the BBC's new highbrow channel, BBC Two, launched in 1964.
0:45:50 > 0:45:55Leading the way was a talented young pianist called Oscar Peterson.
0:46:10 > 0:46:16Oscar was at home in the TV age, and a regular guest on Parkinson.
0:46:18 > 0:46:21You make it look so easy, actually. Do you ever play a bum note?
0:46:21 > 0:46:23Oh, every time.
0:46:23 > 0:46:25LAUGHTER
0:46:25 > 0:46:28- No. No way.- Every tune. - Really?- Mm-hm.
0:46:28 > 0:46:31You never play anything perfectly at all?
0:46:31 > 0:46:34- I don't think there is a pianist that plays anything perfectly.- No.
0:46:34 > 0:46:36But we fooled a lot of you, didn't we?
0:46:36 > 0:46:38LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
0:46:38 > 0:46:42But the relaxed manner hid a furiously competitive streak.
0:46:42 > 0:46:45Oscar was one of the most competitive men I have ever met.
0:46:45 > 0:46:48His father, who was a Pullman porter, used to make him
0:46:48 > 0:46:51learn piano exercises, and while his dad went off to the other
0:46:51 > 0:46:55side of Canada on a train, Oscar would have to have got them right
0:46:55 > 0:46:58by the time the old man came home a few days later.
0:46:58 > 0:47:02His old man set him the task of becoming the most competitive,
0:47:02 > 0:47:06the best pianist in jazz. There wasn't any second place for Oscar.
0:47:06 > 0:47:09He wanted to be the best, and whenever I heard him on stage,
0:47:09 > 0:47:12whenever I met him and interviewed him for the BBC,
0:47:12 > 0:47:15it was undeniable that he felt that that's what he was.
0:47:15 > 0:47:18PIANO SOLO
0:47:20 > 0:47:23Peterson's musical hero was at Art Tatum,
0:47:23 > 0:47:27who had a fearsome reputation in after-hours piano contests.
0:47:28 > 0:47:34He spent 12 to 18 hours a day practising to try and become...
0:47:34 > 0:47:40or to have the fluidity of technique that he heard in Art Tatum.
0:47:40 > 0:47:45So I'm sure that anybody who was even near
0:47:45 > 0:47:49to the kind of technique that he achieved, he would be like,
0:47:49 > 0:47:51"Well, I'd better just practise a bit more,"
0:47:51 > 0:47:55or, "What have you got for me? Let me see. Let me see what you've got.
0:47:55 > 0:47:57"I can take you out, easily."
0:47:57 > 0:48:00And, you know, it's just... It's all a bit tongue in cheek.
0:48:00 > 0:48:02Sometimes it can get a bit serious
0:48:02 > 0:48:06but, ultimately, it's the poetry of the music that matters.
0:48:06 > 0:48:11But, obviously, if you've got an edge, and it's because you
0:48:11 > 0:48:16are stronger, faster, tougher, or even more delicate, prettier...
0:48:17 > 0:48:19..you know, those attributes,
0:48:19 > 0:48:22then you're going to shove it in people's faces.
0:48:28 > 0:48:32Peterson was given his own show on BBC Two, and even got to
0:48:32 > 0:48:35compare notes with Count Basie
0:48:35 > 0:48:38on the competitiveness of Art Tatum.
0:48:38 > 0:48:42When Art Tatum used to play, he had a trick he used to do.
0:48:42 > 0:48:46If a soloist was playing and playing something like this tempo...
0:48:46 > 0:48:48MID TEMPO BLUES
0:48:50 > 0:48:52..he would lay one of these on him, like...
0:48:52 > 0:48:54PLAYS INTRICATE RUN
0:48:54 > 0:48:55..and of course... Right?
0:48:55 > 0:48:58That's just what you've been doing to me all the time.
0:48:58 > 0:49:00LAUGHTER
0:49:00 > 0:49:03It's... It's...!
0:49:03 > 0:49:05APPLAUSE
0:49:05 > 0:49:07And usually, in the after-hours places, you know,
0:49:07 > 0:49:10the great instigations that used to go on, they'd see two piano players,
0:49:10 > 0:49:14and see Art, and say, "Why don't you play something?"
0:49:14 > 0:49:15"Why don't you play something?"
0:49:15 > 0:49:18You know, he went straight to the piano
0:49:18 > 0:49:21and he, like, just took it apart, literally.
0:49:21 > 0:49:24Just wasted everything on the piano.
0:49:24 > 0:49:26He would play something like what?
0:49:26 > 0:49:30- Pardon?- He would play something like about eight bars of...
0:49:30 > 0:49:33Oh, I can't really do it, because I'm not...
0:49:33 > 0:49:35Do just a little bit, about eight bars.
0:49:35 > 0:49:38LAUGHTER
0:49:40 > 0:49:43- I can't do it, really!- You do it. - I've never imitated...
0:49:43 > 0:49:46I know, but you just play eight bars.
0:49:46 > 0:49:48Just play eight bars.
0:49:48 > 0:49:50- Eight bars?- Just play eight bars...
0:49:50 > 0:49:54PLAYS "Someone To Watch Over Me" in Art Tatum Style
0:49:59 > 0:50:02That's it! That's it!
0:50:02 > 0:50:04APPLAUSE
0:50:06 > 0:50:09When he was playing duets with people, he never openly saw it
0:50:09 > 0:50:11as what they used to call a cutting competition,
0:50:11 > 0:50:14what the pianists used to do in the '30s and '40s,
0:50:14 > 0:50:15but I think he saw that it was...
0:50:15 > 0:50:18He had to sort of...
0:50:18 > 0:50:20He had to be the best.
0:50:20 > 0:50:22And why not? Because he kind of was.
0:50:22 > 0:50:25BAND PLAYS FINAL NOTES AND FLOURISH
0:50:29 > 0:50:33One of the highlights of Oscar's career was his partnership
0:50:33 > 0:50:37with one of the great jazz singers of all time, Ella Fitzgerald.
0:50:37 > 0:50:41Thank you so much, and thank you, Oscar, that was superb as usual.
0:50:41 > 0:50:45And right now we'd like to do one of our Irving Berlin songs
0:50:45 > 0:50:48from our Song Book, which is still available.
0:50:49 > 0:50:52And we hope you like it, it's called Cheek To Cheek.
0:50:55 > 0:50:57# Heaven
0:50:58 > 0:51:03# I'm in heaven
0:51:04 > 0:51:11# And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak
0:51:11 > 0:51:14# And I seem to find... #
0:51:14 > 0:51:17Ella Fitzgerald shone as an artist.
0:51:17 > 0:51:20She shone as a singer, as an improviser.
0:51:20 > 0:51:22Everything worked in Ella.
0:51:22 > 0:51:29# ..When we're out together dancing cheek to cheek
0:51:29 > 0:51:31# Heaven
0:51:31 > 0:51:34# I'm in heaven
0:51:34 > 0:51:40# And the cares that hung around me through the week
0:51:40 > 0:51:45# Seem to vanish like the gambler's lucky streak
0:51:45 > 0:51:51# When we're out together dancing cheek to cheek... #
0:51:51 > 0:51:56Ella's long career included swing, bebop, blues and popular songs.
0:51:56 > 0:52:00In 1980, at the age of 62,
0:52:00 > 0:52:04she told her friend Oscar Peterson about how she got started.
0:52:04 > 0:52:06I really didn't think I was going to be a singer.
0:52:06 > 0:52:08I was going to be a dancer.
0:52:08 > 0:52:10LAUGHTER
0:52:12 > 0:52:14Let's do the next tune.
0:52:16 > 0:52:19- That's a fact.- You were really serious about being a dancer?
0:52:19 > 0:52:23I really wanted to be a dancer.
0:52:23 > 0:52:25I made a bet with some girlfriends of mine,
0:52:25 > 0:52:28and we wanted to go to on an amateur contest,
0:52:28 > 0:52:31and we just signed our names
0:52:31 > 0:52:33and mine was called, so I had to go on.
0:52:33 > 0:52:36When I saw all those lights out there,
0:52:36 > 0:52:39there was no way in the world I was going to dance.
0:52:39 > 0:52:42The man said, "Well, do something! You are out here!"
0:52:44 > 0:52:47So I try to sing like Miss Connee Boswell.
0:52:47 > 0:52:53And we had a record at home of her singing Object Of My Affection,
0:52:53 > 0:52:56and I tried to sing like her, and I won first prize.
0:52:56 > 0:52:59HE PLAYS OPENING FLOURISH
0:52:59 > 0:53:06# The object of my affection has changed my complexion
0:53:06 > 0:53:08# From brown to rosy red
0:53:10 > 0:53:12# Rosy red, rosy red... #
0:53:12 > 0:53:14They said, "That girl can sing!
0:53:14 > 0:53:16LAUGHTER
0:53:16 > 0:53:18Got first prize.
0:53:18 > 0:53:2012.50.
0:53:20 > 0:53:22LAUGHTER
0:53:23 > 0:53:27It was one of the best rags-to-riches stories in jazz.
0:53:27 > 0:53:32The shy 16-year-old was spotted by bandleader Chick Webb,
0:53:32 > 0:53:36became his star vocalist, and even took over his band when he died.
0:53:38 > 0:53:41In 1974, the BBC filmed Ella in performance
0:53:41 > 0:53:43at Ronnie Scott's club in London.
0:53:43 > 0:53:46By this stage of her career, she was more usually seen in concert halls
0:53:46 > 0:53:50and festivals, but the intimacy suited her.
0:53:50 > 0:53:52She certainly made a night of it.
0:53:52 > 0:53:56# We want to leave you happy Don't want to leave you sad
0:53:56 > 0:54:00# We want to leave you happy Don't want to leave you sad
0:54:00 > 0:54:05# Want to sing some blues but don't want to sing them bad
0:54:06 > 0:54:08# Roy wailed for you
0:54:08 > 0:54:10# He wailed the blues tonight... #
0:54:10 > 0:54:14I love that performance because the thing about Ella Fitzgerald,
0:54:14 > 0:54:17she walks on... She's so unpretentious.
0:54:17 > 0:54:21She walks on stage, she's got this childlike quality of joy
0:54:21 > 0:54:25to be there, like she can't quite believe it's happening, still,
0:54:25 > 0:54:28and there they are, the other guys, they obviously love her,
0:54:28 > 0:54:32complete respect, warmth coming from all of them.
0:54:32 > 0:54:35Before she sings a note, it's a lovable scenario,
0:54:35 > 0:54:38and then off she goes and she's a natural.
0:54:38 > 0:54:40SHE SINGS SCAT SOLO
0:54:50 > 0:54:53She sings with such intelligence.
0:54:53 > 0:54:56Her phrasing is never too much.
0:54:56 > 0:55:01It's sophisticated, it's classy, it swings, it's got sass,
0:55:01 > 0:55:05she's tender, she's foxy
0:55:05 > 0:55:08and she's innocent, all at the same time as well.
0:55:08 > 0:55:10Thank you so very, very much.
0:55:10 > 0:55:14You know, this is my first time in, oh,
0:55:14 > 0:55:19many, many years playing a nightclub in London.
0:55:19 > 0:55:21I think it's my first time in London.
0:55:21 > 0:55:25I was in a little club in Manchester.
0:55:25 > 0:55:26They tell me. But anyway...
0:55:26 > 0:55:28LAUGHTER
0:55:28 > 0:55:32- But you are so beautiful. MAN:- You're beautiful!
0:55:32 > 0:55:34Oh, thank you, my love. I love you, too.
0:55:34 > 0:55:36APPLAUSE
0:55:36 > 0:55:40How do you feel about being described as sexy but motherly?
0:55:40 > 0:55:44At having the same kind of appeal in Britain as the Queen Mother?
0:55:44 > 0:55:46The Queen Mother?!
0:55:46 > 0:55:49Well, I like the sexy part.
0:55:49 > 0:55:51SHE LAUGHS
0:55:52 > 0:55:56I'm not quite ready to settle down too low, too much, now.
0:55:56 > 0:55:58I still believe!
0:56:04 > 0:56:08# Some day he'll come along... #
0:56:08 > 0:56:10APPLAUSE
0:56:10 > 0:56:13# ..The man I love
0:56:14 > 0:56:17# And he'll be big and strong
0:56:17 > 0:56:19# The man I love
0:56:21 > 0:56:24# And when he comes my way
0:56:24 > 0:56:29# I'll do my best to make him stay... #
0:56:29 > 0:56:32The song is by George and Ira Gershwin.
0:56:32 > 0:56:35It had been part of her repertoire since the '50s,
0:56:35 > 0:56:38when she recorded a series of albums known as the Song Books.
0:56:41 > 0:56:45They give a jazz treatment to classics from Broadway musicals
0:56:45 > 0:56:46and Hollywood movies.
0:56:47 > 0:56:53My favourite Ella period is the Song Book era, really through the '50s.
0:56:53 > 0:56:57I think that's when she really was in the best voice.
0:56:57 > 0:56:59She says that she used to be able to do these Song Books
0:56:59 > 0:57:01in three weeks, which is brilliant.
0:57:01 > 0:57:04Learning all the lyrics, getting inside the song,
0:57:04 > 0:57:07interpreting the song, delivering it with such panache
0:57:07 > 0:57:09and such class.
0:57:09 > 0:57:13That's amazing. It can take three years to really learn a song.
0:57:13 > 0:57:16It can take 30 years to learn a song, to really get it,
0:57:16 > 0:57:19but she was in such great form.
0:57:19 > 0:57:24# ..He'll build a little home
0:57:25 > 0:57:28# Just meant for two... #
0:57:28 > 0:57:31Ira Gershwin said, "I never knew how good our songs were
0:57:31 > 0:57:34"until I heard Ella Fitzgerald sing them."
0:57:37 > 0:57:41When Ella died, one writer summed up the achievement of the Song Books.
0:57:41 > 0:57:45"Here was a black woman popularising urban songs
0:57:45 > 0:57:49"often written by immigrant Jews to a national audience
0:57:49 > 0:57:52"of predominantly white Christians.
0:57:52 > 0:57:55"They've become a cultural landmark."
0:57:55 > 0:57:58Truly great music is timeless,
0:57:58 > 0:58:03and when you listen to a great recording by Ella Fitzgerald,
0:58:03 > 0:58:04you don't think,
0:58:04 > 0:58:08"Oh, that's a wonderful piece of nostalgia that I can just dip into."
0:58:08 > 0:58:13I think to myself, "I can't imagine anybody singing like that today."
0:58:13 > 0:58:15# And so all else above
0:58:15 > 0:58:24# I'm waiting for the man I love
0:58:26 > 0:58:29# I love...
0:58:31 > 0:58:33# Hey, come on, man
0:58:35 > 0:58:36# Come on, man
0:58:36 > 0:58:39# Hey, come on, man
0:58:39 > 0:58:42# I'm waiting for the man
0:58:42 > 0:58:44# Crazy for the man
0:58:44 > 0:58:47# I'm waiting for the man
0:58:47 > 0:58:50# The man I love... #