01:01What got me started on a life of crime, which is what my mother thought my youthful interest in jazz implied, was a case of the measles when I was 15.
01:10In those days, the early 1930s, when you had the measles they put you in a darkened room and you were not allowed to read.
01:18and you were not allowed to read.
01:19And so my mother let me have the old family radio,
01:22and I lay there wide awake in the night,
01:25picking up those strange sounds in the night.
01:28Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway,
01:33Earl Hines, Fletcher Henderson,
01:35and all I knew was what I heard,
01:37and what I heard gave a thrust to my life
01:40which has never left it.
01:42I have learned more from them than I did in any classroom,
01:46and their art has given me a faith in creativity
01:49and in life itself that no pulpit has ever offered.
01:54For millions of readers in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s,
01:59Ralph J. Gleason's personal jazz commentaries
02:01were a powerful introduction
02:03to America's most vibrant musical scene,
02:06a way of appreciating a challenging new art form
02:10through the affectionate eyes of a true disciple.
02:13Co-founder of the Monterey Jazz Festival,
02:16co-founder of Rolling Stone Magazine,
02:19contributing writer and editor of Downbeat Magazine,
02:23the world's first syndicated jazz columnist
02:25at the San Francisco Chronicle for over a quarter century.
02:29Gleason's literary exploration of jazz
02:32had only one purpose.
02:34He wanted people to dig the music.
02:36The thing that a modern jazz musician does,
02:39which you should really keep in mind
02:41when you see him in concerts
02:43or see him in jazz clubs,
02:45is somewhat similar to looking at a poet
02:48standing in the middle of a supermarket
02:50and improvising poetry.
02:52They are called upon by the discipline of this art form
02:57to go into public places
02:59and to spontaneously create music.
03:09Life's a game of chance
03:11Unlike a poet,
03:19unlike the writer of a novel,
03:23unlike a painter,
03:23they have no opportunity
03:24to take this product that they have created
03:27and reform it
03:29and correct the mistakes that they might have made
03:31or change the way in which they approach it.
03:33What they do is done for all time
03:35right then when they do it.
03:36This is a very unique thing about jazz
03:43and it's one of the things
03:44that gives it a particular quality of aliveness
03:47that makes it one of the most interesting
03:49and vital of all contemporary art forms.
03:52In 1959,
03:54Gleason took the unprecedented step
03:56of ushering jazz
03:57from smoky late-night clubs
03:59to the blue-gray flickerings
04:01of early television broadcasting,
04:03creating, producing, and hosting
04:05Jazz Casual,
04:07the first nationally televised series
04:09devoted entirely to jazz.
04:12On a stage
04:13left intentionally barren,
04:15Gleason invited his friends
04:17to fill the studio space
04:19with spontaneous innovations
04:20of pure jazz
04:22and his friends conjured up
04:24a special magic.
04:25John Coltrane offered his only television appearance
04:31in North America.
04:34Count Basie visited on his own birthday
04:36improvising with a special hand-picked quartet.
04:43Artists agreed to appear on Jazz Casual
04:46who would have otherwise avoided the camera's glare
04:49because Gleason allowed them the freedom
04:51to play what they wanted
04:53for as long as they wanted,
04:55mixing the music with insight and celebration.
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