The record changer (Jan 1955-Dec 1957)

8 ODYSSEY BAND GOES UNDER THEN OUT AS CELESTIN RECORD TAKES OVER. SF.GUE TO: BESSIE SMITH RECORD. FADE IN: STUDIO. PICK UP TRUMPET MAN PLAYING— PULL BACK TO REVEAL SMALL JAZZ GROUP HITTING IT HOT AND HEAVY. HOLD BRIEFLY THEN PULL BACK TO REVEAL CHARLES SITTING ON STOOL IN FG. CHARLES: Listen to that sound! (BAND IN HEAVY) (THEN) The sound is American, and many claim that it's probably our greatest single artistic achievement. But Frenchmen have written brilliantly of it, and Russians play it well. It's known in every place Americans have been or where radios are heard. It's part of our national message — part of our basic expression. There are variations on the name, but most people call it JAZZ. PUSH PAST CHARLES INTO GROUP. SUPER TITLES. AFTER TITLES: CHARLES STROLLS INTO FRAME NEAR JAZZ GROUP. BAND PLAYS UNDER. CHARLES: The story of jazz that most of us know is a simple one — probably too simple. Most of us are familiar with the story as it began in New Orleans about the turn of the century. Not the first chapter, but a lusty, vigorous one, for jazz expressed the feelings of an uninhibited people. The names of these early jazzmen are part of our national history and part of New Orleans' glory. Buddy Bolden, Willie "Bunk'' Johnson, King Oliver. These are a few of the names of the men who took the raw materials and molded them into jazz. And New Orleans is proud of the heritage these men bequeathed them — proud of the art that grew upon its streets. FILM NO. 1 New Orleans respects jazz and has enshrined it in the Latter Memorial Library. Here we find the instruments, the recordings, and documents of jazz. The bust of Oscar "Papa" Cclestin watches over the huge collection of sound permanently transcribed for history. Celcstin made music through a horn and the sound that he made is a part of this museum. CHARLES: (CUE: BESSIE SMITl FILE CARD) Bessie Smith, she's here, too. Perhap the greatest of the blues singers wh helped jazz give its name to an ag( They're all here, and maybe some of th names are unfamiliar, but each of ther added his own hot licks to jazz, and sen it on its way round the world. END FILM ON SHOT OF SICIAN PLAYING. CUT TO: LIVE: MATCH SHOT LIVE MUSICIAN. PULL BACK A BAND PLAYS. REVEAL CHARLES. CHARLES: The gi/t is ours. New Orleans tied o the pretty blue ribbon, but inside thfl gift, at the core, at the very heart of jaz; lies a century of blood and passion — th pain of labor. Jazz may have been bor in New Orleans, but it was conceive elsewhere — and the forces that welde and shaped it and made it the "blues brings us to the starting point for a voj age, an Odyssey that takes us back to th very beginnings of a way of life, and way of music. FILM NO. 2 CHARLES: (ON CUE) They say the old country music, th root strain, is almost gone now. Lookin for it would mean retracing its waywai flow hundreds of miles up the big rive — the Mississippi. It's a trip in time a well as miles. The time is long ago, be yond the bayous, beyond the Deltas, be yond the memory of New Orleans. It's journey in search of a past — a fragmtn of history — a romantic piece from th storybooks, except for those few whi endured the reality. Looking for the fex who remember a means following th road along obscure tributaries that drail down the Mississippi water-shed, or int the Gulf Coast. CHARLES: The Leaf River . . . the Tombigbe . . . and the Chunky . . . and Bogu Chito Creek. It would mean tracioj Mississippi byways, exploring SDM| towns, cutting through swamps of pm and sweetgum in Alabama bottomland! J These unwinding miles have kept a secrt intact— the people who inhabit them wit ncssed the birth of a music th.u a giant in the span of their lifetime J