[Dixielandjazz] Chrismas Presents

[WILLIAM HORTON]

I received two jazzy Christmas presents.  One was a foot-high Santa with
black shades and a gold tenor sax, playing a jazzy "Santa Claus Is Coming To
Town" while he jukes around realistically.  Great!!

The second was about a 5-pound copy of "Jazz", the companion book of the Ken
Burns PBS television series of that name.

The book was a welcomed gift, although I'm not a Ken Burns fan.  He has
produced three big television series:  Baseball, The Civil War, and Jazz.
Baseball, like chess, is fun to play but too slow and boring to watch, so I
skipped that one.  I considered The Civil War series interesting, but poorly
edited and produced.  I watched the Jazz series, but was turned off by its
undue emphasis on race.

I haven't gotten far into the book, but (naturally, I guess) it appears to
reflect the same racial bias as the TV series.  For example, of the 16
circled pictures on the covers, 15 are "Black," and in the 17 fine-print
index pages, Turk Murphy rates only a single reference!

I know Burns was greatly under the influence of Wynton Marsalis during
production of the Jazz series, but (idle curiosity) is Burns, himself,
Black?

Bill Horton