Explore Black History

mid 20th century

A motion picture film with the title History of Jazz with Willis Conover. It consists of a single reel of positive, black-and-white, 16mm acetate film with bilateral variable-area optical sound. It opens with host Willis Conover welcoming the audience to the show and recapping a previous program. Conover then starts the discussion with a conversation about the development of African American music from West African music as drummers play conga drums on screen. He then discusses New Orleans as a music hub for African Americans before the footage cuts to a street scene of the Eureka Brass Band leading a street parade with their audience dancing in tow.
In the next scene, he talks about the development of ragtime and describes how it is played as a pianist plays a ragtime tune on screen. In the next scene, he describes the development of jazz as a jazz band performs on a stage in front of an audience. After outlining the different genres, the narrator moves on to a discussion of various African American musicians: Buddy Bolden, King Oliver, and Jelly Roll Morten. As he talks, cameo shots of a Victor record playing on a gramophone and photographs of the musicians appear on the screen.
Conover then moves to a discussion of the 1920s and talks about how developments in transportation and the "new faster living" in the US impacted jazz's proliferation. There is also a scene with the Original Dixieland jazz band performing. After this, Conover says, "In Chicago, young, white musicians paid tribute to the great innovators of New Orleans: Bud Freeman, the McPartland Brothers, Bix Beiderbecke, Muggsy Spanier, Gene Krupa, Eddie Condon, these were the core of the Chicago school.” In the final scenes, images of numerous jazz venues appear on the screen. Conover also names some of the big jazz bands that sprung up after many musicians had fled to big cities like New York. He names individuals such as Fletcher Henderson, Don Redman, Luis Russell, Duke Ellington, and Louis Armstrong. At 00:11:43, Conover reappears on camera and delivers a conclusion to the episode, after which footage of the jazz band performing onstage from an earlier scene is played and the episode comes to an end.

National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection

Time-based Media - Moving Images

Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Anonymous Gift in memory of Ernest (Ernie) R. Smith, Jazz Historian

National Museum of African American History and Culture

2015.275.10.1a

sound films
black-and-white films (visual works)
16mm (photographic film size)

acetate film

Duration (digital file): 00:14:39
Physical extent (film): 500 ft

Title • History of Jazz with Willis Conover

nmaahc_2015.275.10.1a

NMAAHC

HISTORY OF JAZZ WITH WILLIS CONOVER

National Museum of African American History and Culture

CC0

1920s • 1970s

Conover, Willis Clark • Eureka Brass Band • Bolden, Buddy • Smith, Ernie

New York City • Orleans Parish • United States • Chicago • North and Central America • Illinois • Louisiana • New Orleans • Cook County

Motion pictures • Jazz (Music)

City • New Orleans • County • Orleans Parish • State • Louisiana • Country • United States • Continent • North and Central America • City • Chicago • County • Cook County • State • Illinois • City • New York City • State • New York

black-and-white films (visual works) • 16mm (photographic film size) • sound films

Use Restricted