Marsalis To Release Jack Johnson Score

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Wynton Marsalis has composed and recorded the original score for Ken Burns’ upcoming PBS documentary, Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise And Fall Of Jack Johnson, a portrait of the first-ever African-American Heavyweight Champion of the World. Conjuring up the early 1900s jazz current to Johnson’s life (1878-1946), Marsalis’ score perfectly complements Burns’s film, capturing all the dramatic tension inherent in Johnson’s story, from the joy of ultimate triumph to the despair of inescapable oppression.

The soundtrack CD will be released by Blue Note on Nov. 30. PBS will air the two-part documentary on Jan. 17-18, 2005.



  • Benny_Golson_by_Michael_Jackson.jpg

    Benny Golson soaks in the music during a late-career performance at Chicago’s Jazz Showcase.

  • Claire_Daly_George_Garzone_at_Dizzys_2023_5x7_copy.jpg

    Claire Daly, right, ​performs with tenor saxophonist George Garzone at Dizzy’s in 2023.

  • photo1.jpg

    ​Harpist Brandee Younger is among the performers on the program for this year’s Hyde Park Jazz Fest in Chicago.

  • John-McNeil-credit-to-Eldon-Phillips.jpg

    McNeil’s virtuosity as a player was unimpeachable and his imagination as an improviser was vast.

  • DB24_Charles_Lloyd_by_Douglas_Mason_at_New_Orleans_Jazz_Fest_copy.jpg

    “I don’t focus on the harshness of the music business,” Lloyd says. “I focus on the profundity of what we’re doing because that’s the real stuff. You can change the world with that.”


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November 2024
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