In the introduction, the narration mentions many times that jazz was a combination of influences from many cultures and many peoples, but it is notably lacking on details.

Of course, the influence of spanish improvisational music is completely overlooked, with the exeption of a quotation from Jelly Roll Morton on the Habanera rhythm. Since the improvisations, rhythms, and scales used in Jazz are closely related to spanish derived improvisational music, and since New Orleans was once a part of Spain, it seems like the could have spared a couple minutes for it--

Bottom line, though, is that the first episode was a mess--was it about music or about history? The text was a mish-mosh of things that have been said many time before, and better. The visuals were basically stock footage and stills, none of which were ever identified or explained, and the music that was played was generally not identified in th narration, some was old jazz, some wasn't, and some of it was connected to the visuals, while some wasn't--

Wynton Marsalis on some occasions explained bits about how the music worked, which was good, and he is an expert in this area, but he is probably not the best historian, biographer, or chronicaller--

Jelly Roll Morton, unless I am very much mistaken, was, in his time, regarded as an anachronism, and distained by many of the contemporary jazz musicians, because he played in an old style, rather than as an innovator, as he was presented--And what about all the other pianists of the teens and twenties? And what about W.C Handy?

No effort to distinguish between blues and jazz, no attempt to explain ragtime, the overnight pupularity of Jazz, and the ensuing"Jazz Age" were mentioned, but not a word about Paul Whiteman or Jean Goldkette--or Fletcher Henderson, for that matter--

It seems a lot like Burns spent most of his time hustling funding and promoting the series, and spent very little time or effort making it--