00:59What got me started on a life of crime, which is what my mother thought my youthful interest
01:04in jazz implied, was a case of the measles when I was 15.
01:08In those days, the early 1930s, when you had the measles, they put you in a darkened room
01:16and you were not allowed to read.
01:18And so my mother let me have the old family radio, and I lay there wide awake in the night,
01:24picking up those strange sounds in the night.
01:27Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Earl Hines, Fletcher Henderson, and all I
01:34knew was what I heard.
01:36And what I heard gave a thrust to my life which has never left it.
01:39I have learned more from them than I did in any classroom, and their art has given me
01:46a faith in creativity and in life itself that no pulpit has ever offered.
01:51For millions of readers in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, Ralph J. Gleason's personal jazz commentaries
02:00were a powerful introduction to America's most vibrant musical scene, a way of appreciating
02:06a challenging new art form through the affectionate eyes of a true disciple.
02:12Co-founder of the Monterey Jazz Festival, co-founder of Rolling Stone Magazine, contributing writer
02:19and editor of Downbeat Magazine, the world's first syndicated jazz columnist at the San Francisco
02:25Chronicle for over a quarter century.
02:28Gleason's literary exploration of jazz had only one purpose.
02:32He wanted people to dig the music.
02:35The thing that a modern jazz musician does, which you should really keep in mind when
02:40you see him in concerts or see him in jazz clubs, is somewhat similar to looking at a
02:47poet standing in the middle of a supermarket and improvising poetry.
02:52They are called upon by the discipline of this art form to go into public places and to spontaneously
02:59create music.
03:05Life's a game of chance, and you're one of the minor plans.
03:14Unlike a poet, unlike the writer of a novel, unlike a painter, they have no opportunity to
03:23take this product that they have created and reform it and correct the mistakes that they
03:29might have made or change the way in which they approach it.
03:32But what they do is done for all time right then when they do it.
03:35This is a very unique thing about jazz, and it's one of the things that gives it a particular
03:45quality of aliveness that makes it one of the most interesting and vital of all contemporary
03:49art forms.
03:50In 1959, Gleason took the unprecedented step of ushering jazz from smoky late night clubs
03:58to the blue-gray flickerings of early television broadcasting, creating, producing, and hosting
04:04Jazz Casual, the first nationally televised series devoted entirely to jazz.
04:11On a stage left intentionally barren, Gleason invited his friends to fill the studio space
04:17with spontaneous innovations of pure jazz.
04:21And his friends conjured up a special magic.
04:27John Coltrane offered his only television appearance in North America.
04:33Count Basie visited on his own birthday, improvising with a special hand-picked quartet.
04:42Artists agreed to appear on Jazz Casual who would have otherwise avoided the camera's glare,
04:48because Gleason allowed them the freedom to play what they wanted, for as long as they
04:53wanted, mixing the music with insight and celebration.
05:04There are very few people that I consider qualified to judge whether someone is a jazz player or
05:11a jazz singer.
05:12Now, you happen to be one of the few people that I feel is fully qualified.
05:15You could cancel off the shelf.
05:17Am I a jazz singer?
05:18Mel.
05:19Mel.
05:20Am I a jazz singer?
05:21You are to me, but I've got a very good friend who thinks you aren't.
05:24When Sunny gets blue, she breathes a sigh of sadness, like the wind that stirs the trees.
05:31Like the wind that stirs the trees.
05:38If you'd like to buy my wares, follow me and climb the stairs.
05:53What better definition of a jazz singer could we possibly have than Carmen McRae?
06:00Earl Father Hines is really the father of jazz piano.
06:01And one of the most important musicians who has ever played this music.
06:03And today you really can't play jazz piano without playing a little bit of Earl Father Hines.
06:07Thanks for that wonderful introduction.
06:08Well, you know, I mean it and you deserve it and we all know this.
06:14Of the original 31 episodes of Jazz Casual produced, 28 still survive, having been locked away in a vault since their first and only broadcast some three decades ago.
06:21Now digitally remastered, these rare treasures capture the pure essence of the jazz experience.
06:45By bringing together these glimpses of the great creative artists from the earliest right down to the most modern jazz, I would like to assist in placing all of them on the broad cultural stage in their proper perspective.
07:02This is a dedication to those musicians for all the great moments, the magnificent highs of listening.
07:10For all I have learned from them, my true teachers, and above all, for their clear instruction in how to live.
07:20Ralph J. Gleason's Jazz Casual Series.
07:23More than two dozen historic masterpiece performances from the titans of modern jazz.
07:30Unseen in over 30 years and available for the first time ever on home video.
07:40The Ralph J. Gleason Jazz Casual Series.
07:45Only on Rhino Home Video.
07:47The Ralph J. Gleason Jazz Casual Series.
07:52Only on Rhino Home Video.
07:57The Ralph J. Gleason Jazz Casual Series.
07:58I wish there were some photographs orravino homes developing.
08:03A man using his own music for the money and own imagination速 är.
08:05For even any, his Strongín deluge or his Seems likeland 1987.
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