Season 1

Bluesland explores the Blues, with all its poetic irony, sly humour, eroticism and timeless power. A uniquely creative and highly visual look at American Blues.

Born at the turn of the century, Louis Armstrong was a living symbol of 20th Century American culture. He revolutionized the world of music and became one of our most influential entertainers.

A leading musician of the Swing era and an outstanding representative of the Big Band style, Count Basie was an eminent bandleader and jazz pianist. He led one of the most enduring swing bands of all time; no other musician was ever more committed to stomping, shouting, swinging, jumping, and dragging away the Blues than Count Basie.

Ray Charles was the innovator who fused Gospel, Jazz, and Blues to create modern Soul music. His crossover vision also widened the scope of Country and Western, his unique voice touching the hearts of people around the world.

Innovative, influential, and strongly revered, John Coltrane was the most revolutionary and widely imitated saxophonist in Jazz. Using previously unseen footage, The World According to John Coltrane celebrates this extraordinary and passionate musician

This story invites viewers to see the many faces of this “dark lady of the sonnets”, as one poet called her, and to appreciate her undying art more deeply. While she was a victim of hard times and drug addiction, the single fact of her life that matters above all others is that she was a great artist who, with Louis Armstrong, invented modern jazz singing.

The first fully-rounded portrait of this terribly misunderstood man and musician. He was the pianistic ringleader of the Bebop revolution and was, after Duke Ellington, Jazz’s first major composer.

One of the great legends in American music, the virtuoso saxophonist Charlie Parker, nicknamed Bird, created a new style of Jazz and also won equal fame as the king of the hipsters.

The Divine One recounts the stellar singer’s career, from her beginnings at the Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey, to her debut at the Apollo Theatre and her pre-eminence in nightclubs, concert halls, and jazz festivals around the world.

This episode puts the crown on the Masters of American Music series. As entertaining as it is informative, this is a seamless array of performances, commentary, and compelling historic insight.