Building a Library From the Burns-Related Releases

Ken Burns’ mammoth, 19-hour-plus documentary “Jazz” won’t show up on PBS until January, but the music that was gathered for the film--either for inclusion in the soundtrack or as reference material--arrives over the next two weeks in several packages, all of them extraordinary. It may be, in fact, that the greatest long-term benefit of “Jazz”--aside from its inherent value--is the subsequent availability of this remarkable collection of recordings.

The albums represent an unprecedented partnership between independent recording companies. In the past, large overview compilations have generally been limited to product either recorded or controlled by a single company. For this effort, however, the Verve Group and Columbia Legacy joined forces to produce a five-CD boxed set, a single “best of” CD, and 22 individual albums (11 from each company), each dedicated to a major jazz figure. In the process, other companies were persuaded to make material available from their catalogs. The result is a set of recordings that can serve either as the basic foundation for an extensive jazz collection or a mini-collection in themselves.

“The Best of Ken Burns Jazz” (****, Verve/Columbia Legacy). This collection of 20 tracks personally chosen by the filmmaker is intended to serve as a broad view of the music from the documentary. It actually does a bit more. The arc from the opening track, Louis Armstrong’s “Stardust,” to the closing piece, “Take the ‘A’ Train” by the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, makes the film’s orientation clear: that Armstrong is the most essential jazz artist, and that Wynton Marsalis’ Lincoln Center jazz program represents the most legitimate contemporary extension of the music’s historical essence.

There are those who will disagree, of course, but there’s no denying the quality of what Burns has chosen, even though one may quibble about its inclusiveness, especially in the post-’60s period--which is barely addressed in the documentary. Among the many classic items are the Duke Ellington Orchestra playing “The Mooche” and “Cotton Tail,” Bix Beiderbecke and Frankie Trumbauer with “Singin’ the Blues,” Benny Goodman’s version of “King Porter Stomp,” Count Basie’s “Jumpin’ at the Woodside,” Thelonious Monk’s “Straight, No Chaser,” Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five,” John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps” and Miles Davis’ “So What.” Conservative choices? Yes. Still, as an almost full glass of jazz, its appeal is irresistible.

“Ken Burns Jazz: The Story of America’s Music” (****, Verve/Columbia Legacy). A five-CD boxed set, arranged in chronological order, with 94 performances spanning the 20th century and paralleling the documentary. Everything from the single CD set is included, but with all the in-between gaps filled in--with the exception, again, of the post-’60s styles that are omitted from the single CD.

The pre-’60s period, however, is handled superbly. Disc 1, which basically covers the ‘20s and earlier, includes numbers from Jelly Roll Morton (“The Pearls”), Clarence Williams (“Wild Cat Blues”), Fletcher Henderson (“Sugar Foot Stomp”), Duke Ellington (“Mood Indigo”) and Louis Armstrong (“Potato Head Blues” and “West End Blues”), among others.

Disc 2 embraces the swing era, concentrating primarily upon the large groups of Ellington, Armstrong, Jimmy Lunceford (his stirring “For Dancers Only”), Benny Goodman (“Sing, Sing, Sing”), Count Basie (featuring the Kansas City Seven playing Lester Young’s “Lester Leaps In”), Billie Holiday (“Strange Fruit”), Chick Webb and Ella Fitzgerald (“A-Tisket, A-Tasket”), and tracks from Art Tatum, Django Reinhardt and Sidney Bechet.

Disc 3 includes some of the big swing band hits--Artie Shaw’s “Begin the Beguine,” Glenn Miller’s “In the Mood,” Tommy Dorsey’s “Well, Git It!” and Gene Krupa’s “Drum Boogie.” (Stan Kenton is inexplicably missing here and elsewhere.) Most of the tracks, however, are devoted to the bebop revolution, with Charlie Parker (“KoKo,” “Scrapple From the Apple,” “Embraceable You”), Dizzy Gillespie (“Groovin’ High” and “Salt Peanuts”), Monk (“Epistrophy”), Chet Baker and Gerry Mulligan (“Walkin’ Shoes”) and the inclusion of more Armstrong and Holiday.

Disc 4 moves quickly through the ‘50s and early ‘60s via individual tracks from Horace Silver & the Jazz Messengers (“Doodlin’ ”), Clifford Brown and Max Roach (“I Get a Kick out of You”), Sonny Rollins (“St. Thomas”), the Modern Jazz Quartet (“Django”), Cecil Taylor (“Rick Kick Shaw”), Charles Mingus (“Original Faubus Fables”), Ornette Coleman (“Chronology”) and John Coltrane (“Acknowledgment”). But neither the sounds of soul jazz nor the adventurous work of Lennie Tristano and his associates, nor the Gil Evans/Miles Davis collaborations, are present.

Disc 5 returns to Armstrong with “Hello, Dolly!,” Ellington (performing in a small group with Coltrane) and Davis (“E.S.P.” and “Spanish Key”). A few token gestures toward fusion, etc., surface with Weather Report (its primary hit, “Birdland”), and items from Grover Washington Jr. (“Mr. Magic”), Herbie Hancock (“Rockit,” of all things), and Ron Carter with rapper MC Solaar. But the disc closes with tracks from Dexter Gordon, Wynton Marsalis, Cassandra Wilson and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, again underscoring the Burns production’s timidity in dealing with most of the post-’60s developments in jazz.

“Masters of American Jazz” (**** for each album, Columbia Legacy and Verve). In some respects, the 22 albums included in this group represent the most impressive achievement of the entire package of recordings associated with the Burns documentary. Impressive because Columbia Legacy and Verve have endeavored to assemble comprehensive programs for each of the artists, unrestricted by source. In many cases, that has meant pulling together material from several labels. In the process, they have in essence created “best of” collections for each performer that often encompass their entire recording careers--an exceptional accomplishment.

The Columbia Legacy albums are devoted to Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Dave Brubeck, Ornette Coleman, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Herbie Hancock, Fletcher Henderson, Charles Mingus and Thelonious Monk.

Brubeck, Davis, Goodman, Henderson, Mingus and Monk all have fairly substantial Columbia catalogs. But what’s fascinating is the inclusion of material from multiple other sources. The Mingus collection, for example, includes “Ysabel’s Table Dance” (from RCA), “Haitian Fight Song” (from Atlantic) and “Original Faubus Fables” (from the Candid label). The Monk collection includes tracks from Columbia, Blue Note, Riverside and Black Lion. And the Armstrong set ranges across material from Okeh, Decca, Columbia, MGM and ABC-Paramount.

The Verve featured artists are Count Basie, Art Blakey, John Coltrane, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Coleman Hawkins, Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins, Sarah Vaughan and Lester Young.

And here too the programming is extraordinary. The Parker CD, for example, encompasses selections from Savoy (“KoKo” and “Anthropology”), with tracks from Dial (“Yardbird Suite,” “Lover Man,” “Relaxin’ at Camarillo,” etc.) and Clef (“Star Eyes” and “Confirmation”). The Holiday disc includes early material from her mid-’30s recordings for Brunswick (“What a Little Moonlight Can Do,” “I Cried for You”), selections from her Commodore outings (including “Yesterdays”), mid-’40s songs such as “Lover Man,” “Don’t Explain” and “Good Morning Heartache” (on Coral and Decca), and late offerings from Verve and Columbia (1957’s “Fine and Mellow” and 1958’s “You’ve Changed”).

There is, obviously, a lot to choose from, and it’s really not possible to make a bad choice. But the most productive approach would be to start acquiring the individual albums in the “Masters of American Jazz” series before moving on to the five-CD box.