Credit: WITF, Inc.
Transcript:
Background music:Cool mid-tempo jazz music fills the background for duration.
Narrative:
Loud....fast....raucous....controversial.....even DANGEROUS...
Video:
Video of hands playing the piano. Close up of drummer playing fast. Stills of impassioned jazz musicians and singers quickly dissolve with an upbeat tempo.
Narrative:
Jazz......
Video:
Still images move across the screen showing big bands and small combos.
Narrative:
Philadelphia and Pittsburgh both made significant contributions to the evolution of jazz in the twentieth century.
Video:
Stills of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh dissolve into live shots of John Coltrane playing saxophone.
Narrative:
In Pittsburgh, clubs like The Crawford Grill fueled the jazz revolution.
Video:
Still images of The Crawford Grill and The Standard Theatre.
Narrative:
Pittsburgh's Kenny Clark and Philadelphia's John Coltrane went on to become central players in the Bebop revolution of the 1940s and 1950s, and the "New Thing" and Free Jazz movements of the 1960s. Great jazz artists from Pennsylvania like John Coltrane, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, and Billie Holiday all contributed to the emerging music and budding culture that jazz embodies.
Video:
John Coltrane and his combo playing. Stills of Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey and Billie Holiday dissolve slowly into each other.
Narrative:
But Jazz was not embraced by all who heard it. Some in the Black middle class and others associated jazz with sin and crime. At one time, religious groups even called it the "devil's music," citing that it brings out a "rowdy instinct."
Video:
Still images of Billie Holiday, and other fatigued and emphatic musicians.
Narrative:
Now, jazz is appreciated as one of the great musical art forms of the twentieth century, and is taught in music schools and universities. Pennsylvania's important contribution to jazz is still growing with emerging clubs and promising new musicians, playing a vital role in the next surge of jazz sounds.
Video:
Still images of jazz singers and musicians. Video images of John Coltrane and his band playing jazz music.
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