Rhino Home Video - Ralph Gleason's Jazz Casual Videos Promo (Ver. 1) (1999-2000) (HD VHS Rip) - video Dailymotion

Mina Hebert

1999.

Transcript

00:00What got me started on a life of crime, which is what my mother thought my youthful interest

00:11in jazz implied, was a case of the measles when I was 15. In those days, the early 1930s,

00:20when you had the measles, they put you in a darkened room and you were not allowed to

00:24read. And so my mother let me have the old family radio, and I lay there wide awake in the night,

00:30picking up those strange sounds in the night. Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway,

00:38Earl Hines, Fletcher Henderson, and all I knew was what I heard, and what I heard gave a thrust to my

00:45life which has never left it. I have learned more from them than I did in any classroom,

00:51and their art has given me a faith in creativity and in life itself that no pulpit has ever offered.

00:59For millions of readers in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, Ralph J. Gleason's personal jazz commentaries

01:07were a powerful introduction to America's most vibrant musical scene, a way of appreciating a

01:14challenging new art form through the affectionate eyes of a true disciple. Co-founder of the Monterey

01:20Jazz Festival, co-founder of Rolling Stone Magazine, contributing writer and editor of

01:26Downbeat Magazine, the world's first syndicated jazz columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle for

01:33over a quarter century. Gleason's literary exploration of jazz had only one purpose. He wanted people to

01:40dig the music. The thing that a modern jazz musician does, which you should really keep in mind when you

01:47see him in concerts, or I see him in jazz clubs, is somewhat similar to looking at a poet standing in

01:55the middle of a supermarket and improvising poetry. They are called upon by the discipline of this art

02:02form to go into public places and to spontaneously create music.

02:14Life's a game of chance, and you're one of the minor plans.

02:21Unlike a poet, unlike the writer of a novel, unlike a painter, they have no opportunity to take this

02:31product that they have created and reform it and correct the mistakes that they might have made or

02:37change the way in which they approach it. What they do is done for all time right then when they do it.

02:42This is a very unique thing about jazz, and it's one of the things that gives it a particular quality

02:52of aliveness that makes it one of the most interesting and vital of all contemporary art forms.

02:58In 1959, Gleason took the unprecedented step of ushering jazz from smoky late night clubs to the blue

03:05gray flickerings of early television broadcasting, creating, producing, and hosting Jazz Casual, the first

03:13nationally televised series devoted entirely to jazz. On a stage left intentionally barren, Gleason invited

03:22his friends to fill the studio space with spontaneous innovations of pure jazz, and his friends conjured up a

03:30special magic. John Coltrane offered his only television appearance in North America. Count Basie visited

03:41on his own birthday, improvising with a special hand-picked quartet. Artists agreed to appear on Jazz

03:51Casual who would have otherwise avoided the camera's glare, because Gleason allowed them the freedom to play

03:57what they wanted for as long as they wanted, mixing the music with insight and celebration.

04:11There are very few people that I consider qualified to judge whether someone is a jazz player or a jazz

04:18singer. Now, you happen to be one of the few people that I feel is fully qualified.

04:22You could cancel off the show for that. Am I a jazz singer?

04:26No. Am I a jazz singer? You are to me, but I've got a very good friend who thinks you aren't.

04:32When Sunny gets blue, she breathes a sigh of sadness, like the wind that stirs the trees.

04:42If you'd like to buy my wares, follow me and climb the stairs. Love forces.

05:04What better definition of a jazz singer could we possibly have than Carmen McRae?

05:16Earl Father Hines is really the father of jazz piano and one of the most important musicians who has

05:22ever played this music. And today you really can't play jazz piano without playing a little bit of Earl

05:28Father Hines. Thanks for that wonderful introduction. Well, you know, I mean it and you deserve it and we all

05:34know this.

05:37Of the original 31 episodes of Jazz Casual produced, 28 still survive, having been locked

05:44away in a vault since their first and only broadcast some three decades ago. Now digitally remastered,

05:51these rare treasures capture the pure essence of the jazz experience.

05:58By bringing together these glimpses of the great creative artists from the earliest right

06:02down to the most modern jazz, I would like to assist in placing all of them on the broad cultural

06:08stage in their proper perspective. This is a dedication to those musicians for all the great

06:15moments, the magnificent highs of listening. For all I have learned from them, my true teachers,

06:22and above all for their clear instruction in how to live. Ralph J Gleason's Jazz Casual Series, more than two

06:32dozen historic masterpiece performances from the titans of modern jazz, unseen in over 30 years and available

06:41for the first time ever on home video. The Ralph J Gleason Jazz Casual Series, only on Rhino Home Video.

Rhino Home Video - Ralph Gleason's Jazz Casual Videos Promo (Ver. 1) (1999-2000) (HD VHS Rip)

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