I am sitting and watching this series with my on and off tape button in hand in hopes I'll capture a few bits of wonderful video that I've never seen. From the entire episode last night I managed to get about 20 minutes of decent video tape. There might be some of Louie A. tonight that's worth recording. And just a bit of Duke Ellington. Other than that, it's fun to pick and choose the same way I picked and chose from the wealth of trad tales and ballads (and jokes) that became my repertoir. I'm having fun.

All that said, I do wish this whole thing had been put together by ED BRADLEY instead of someone with the too shallow tastes of Ken Burns. At the end of the 19 hours I'll come back here and say what I felt about the whole thing.

One thing for sure, If Burns glosses over the career of my personal favorite sax player, LESTER YOUNG, I'm gonna be pissed off big time.

Art Thieme