>> Presenting Ken Burns' 144-hour Extremely Important Documentary, Jazz.
>>
>> Fade up on a grainy old photograph of a man in a three-piece suit,
>> holding a cornet. Or a bicycle horn, it's hard to tell.
>>
>> Narrator: Skunkbucket LeFunke was born in 1876 and died in 1901. No
>> one who heard him is alive today. The grandchildren of the people who
>> heard him are not alive today. The great-grandchildren of the people
>> who heard him are not alive today. He was never recorded.
>>
>> Wynton Marsalis: I'll tell you what Skunkbucket LeFunke sounded like.
>> He had this big rippling sound, and he always phrased off the beat,
>> and he slurred his notes. And when the Creole bands were still playing
>> De-bah-de-bah-ta-da-tah, he was already playing
>> Bo-dap-da-lete-do-do-do-bah! He was just like gumbo, ahead of his
>> time.
>>
>> Announcer: LeFunke was a cornet player, gambler, card shark, pool
>> hustler, pimp, male prostitute, Kelly Girl, computer programmer, brain
>> surgeon, and he invented the Internet.
>>
>> Stanley Crouch: When people listened to Skunkbucket LeFunke, they
>> heard Do-do-dee-bwap-da-dee-dee-de-da-da-doop-doop-dap. And they knew
>> even then how deeply profound that was.
>>
>> Announcer: It didn't take LeFunke long to advance the art of jazz past
>> its humble beginnings in New Orleans whoredom with the addition of a
>> bold and sassy beat.
>>
>> Wynton: Let me tell you about the Big Four. Before the Big Four, jazz
>> drumming sounded like BOOM-chick-BOOM-chick-BOOM-chick. But now they
>> had the Big Four, which was so powerful some said it felt like a Six.
>> A few visiting musicians even swore they were in an Eight.
>>
>> Stanley: It was smooth and responsive, and there was no knocking and
>> pinging, even on 87 octane.
>>
>> Wynton: Even on gumbo.
>>
>> Announcer: When any musician in the world heard Louis Armstrong for
>> the first time, they gnawed their arm off with envy, then said the
>> angels probably wanted to sound like Louis. When you consider a bunch
>> of angels talking in gruff voices and singing "Hello Dolly," you
>> realize what a stupid aspiration that is.
>>
>> Gary Giddy: Louis changed jazz because he was the only cat going
>> Do-da-dep-do-wah-be-be, while everyone else was doing
>> Do-de-dap-dit-dit-dee.
>>
>> Stanley: And that was very profound.
>>
>> Marsalis: Like gumbo.
>>
>> Stanley: Uh-huh.
>>
>> Matt Glaser: I always have this fantasy that when Louis performed in
>> Belgium, Heisenberg was in the audience and he was blown away and
>> that's where he got the idea for his Uncertainty Principle.
>>
>> Marsalis: Because the Uncertainty Principle, applied to jazz, means
>> you never know if a cat is going to go Dap-da-de-do-ba-ta-bah or
>> Dap-da-de-do-bip-de-beep.
>>
>> Wynton: Louis was the first one to realize that.
>>
>> Stanley: And that can be very profound.
>>
>> Stanley: I thought it was a box of chocolates...
>>
>> Announcer: The Savoy Ballroom brought people of all races colors and
>> political persuasions together to get sweaty as Europe moved closer
>> and closer to the brink of World War II.
>>
>> Savoy Dancer: We didn't care what color you were at the Savoy. We only
>> cared if you were wearing deodorant.
>>
>> Stanley: Wynton always wears deodorant.
>>
>> Glaser: I'll bet Arthur Murray was on the dance floor and he was
>> thinking about Louis and that's where he got the idea to open a bunch
>> of dance schools.
>>
>> Stanley: And that was very profound.
>>
>> Giddy: Let's talk about Louis some more. We've wasted three minutes of
>> this 57-part documentary not talking about Louis.
>>
>> Wynton: He was an angel, a genius, much better than Cats.
>>
>> Stanley: He invented the word "Cats."
>>
>> Wynton: He invented swing, he invented jazz, he invented the
>> telephone, the automobile, and the polio vaccine.
>>
>> Stanley: And the Internet.
>>
>> Wynton: Very profound.
>>
>> Announcer: Louis Armstrong turned commercial in the 1930s and didn't
>> make any more breakthrough contributions to jazz. But it's not PC to
>> point that out, so we'll be showing him in every segment of this
>> series to come, even if he's just doing the same things as the last
>> time you saw him.
>>
>> Glaser: I'll bet Chuck Yeager was in the audience when Louis was
>> hitting those high Cs at the Earle Theater in Philadelphia, and that's
>> what made him decide to break the sound barrier.
>>
>> Stanley: And from there go to Pluto.
>>
>> Wynton: I'm going to make some gumbo.
>>
>> Stanley: BOOM-chick-BOOM-chick-BOOM-chick...
>>
>> Giddy: Do-yap-do-wee-bah-scoot-scoot-dap-dap.... That's what all the
>> cats were saying back then.
>>
>> Announcer: In 1964, John Coltrane was at his peak, Eric Dolphy was in
>> Europe, where he would eventually die, the Modern Jazz Quartet was
>> making breakthrough recordings in the field of Third Stream Music,
>> Miles Davis was breaking new barrier with his second great quintet,
>> and Charlie Mingus was extending jazz composition to new levels of
>> complexity. But we're going to talk about Louis singing "Hello Dolly"
>> instead.
>>
>> Stanley: Louis went,
>> Ba-ba-yaba-do-do-dee-da-bebin-doo-wap-deet-deet-do-da-da.
>>
>> Wynton: Sweets went,
>> Scoop-doop-shalaba-yaba-mokey-hokey-bwap-bwap-tee-tee-dee.
>>
>> Giddy: I go, Da-da-shoobie-doobie-det-det-det-bap-bap-baaaaa...
>>
>> Announcer: The rest of the history of jazz will be shown in fast
>> forward and will occupy exactly seven seconds.... There, that was it.
>> Now here are some scenes from Ken Burns' next documentary, a 97-part
>> epic about the Empire State Building, titled The Empire State Building.
>> "It is tall and majestic. It is America's building. It is the Empire
>> State Building. Dozens of workers gave their lives in the construction
>> of this building."
>>
>> Matt Glaser: I'll bet that they were thinking of Louis as they were
>> falling to their deaths. I have this fantasy that his high notes
>> inspired the immenseness of the Empire State Building.
>>
>> Wynton Marsalis: I'll bet most people who'd fall off the Empire State
>> Building would go "Aaaaaahhhh!" But these cats went
>> "Dee-dee-daba-da-da-bop-bop-de-dop-shewap-splat!"
>>
>> Announcer: That's next time on PBS. Sponsored by Viewers Like You.
