Jazz on PBS

Debut: Ken Burns essays “America's music” in a panoramic 10-part series, which took six years to produce, and features some 500 pieces of music and 75 interviewees. Burns turns frequently to Wynton Marsalis, and Part 1, “Gumbo,” spends most of its time in Marsalis's home town of New Orleans, where jazz was born, examining the musical and cultural ingredients that went into the soup. The opener begins in 1817, when slaves were first permitted to sing and dance on Sundays, and ends with a “coda” introducing the series' central figure: New Orleans native Louis Armstrong. Keith David narrates.