Ken Burns Speaks on Jazz

Filmmaker Ken Burns, a Grammy, Emmy and Peabody Award winner, defended his landmark new documentary "Jazz" at a panel discussion entitled "Jazz, Race and American Identity" last night at Harvard Law School's Austin Hall.

Panelists--including W.E.B. Du Bois Professor of the Humanities Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr., Law School Professor Charles J. Ogletree and a number of jazz experts and critics--explored the impact of jazz on American history and culture through the context of the documentary.

Panelists also discussed the history of race relations as played out in the jazz movement.

Burns's 17 and a half hour long documentary began airing on PBS Jan. 8.

In front of a packed room, Burns, who has won acclaim for his previous documentaries on the Civil War and baseball, fended off attacks from other panelists that the film had left out important aspects of jazz history.

Prominent essayist Stanley Crouch said Burns had not sufficiently emphasized the role of race in jazz history.

"Not enough of the civil rights struggle is put into the film," he said.

Burns, however, said that he was not trying to present a complete and comprehensive history.

Comparing himself to a painter, Burns said, "This is a still life, not a landscape. I could not include everything."

Author and critic Gary Giddins, a consultant to the "Jazz" documentary, dismissed attacks on the historical breadth of the film.

"A lot of critics are reviewing what's not in the film," he said. "But we should look at what is there. No one has ever done a story like this."

Panelists also questioned why a white filmmaker like Burns was producing the pivotal work on a mostly black cultural movement.

"Would a brother or a sister have been able to do this?" Ogletree asked.

Audience members said they enjoyed the panel but said it did not answer all their questions.

Diane E. Williams said she thought Burns's skin color might have played a role in securing the funds to complete the film.

"Through [Burns's] white privilege, he has an opportunity to disseminate information that many talented African-American artists don't have in this country to this day," she said.

Andrew J. Furer '83, who teaches an expository writing class at the college called "Jazz and Literature," said the panel succesfully illustrated the controversies surrounding Burns's work.

"There are a lot of issues and there is no simple closure," he said. "There are many different worlds that intersect to talk about jazz."

--Staff writer William M. Rasmussen can be reached at wrasmuss@fas.harvard.edu.