Ken Burns' JAZZ starts Monday on PBS!

I will probably tape and watch at my leisure. I usually do not place much weight on critics, however all the reviews (that were not advertisements in disguise) in the media from those who got advanced viewing, have been fair to bad. I've read Ken Burns has left out about half of the nation's Jazz community completely, such as latin jazz and many other forms. I've read that people like Dave Brubeck and many many other legendary performers are not even mentioned once in 19 hours of programming. He proclaims Duke Ellington the greatest composer in history, period. Quite a statement for a documentary. I am sure there is some diagreement there. He makes the same type of declarations in other areas of performance. But I will still browse the tapes for the music parts and ignore the preaching from Mr. Burns. Just passing on what I have read and heard. Happy viewing.

I sat in the audience at Wolf Trap near Washington DC for the Marsalis/Lincoln Center group last summer. Great Concert??

What is evident in all of Ken Burns' documentaries that we may not pick up on in "The Civil War" because it is a important part; is that Burns tends to spend a lot of time giving the viewer a civil rights lecture and putting a civil rights bent on everything he covers. I learned very little about Thomas Jefferson the man, and his importance to our nation, and instead saw hours of a account his owning slaves, whether he had a baby with one of them, and how we should all feel about it.