Jazz on PBS

Part 2 of 10: “The Gift (1917-24)” examines the phenomenal “jazz age” and the early careers of Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong. The film also profiles Armstrong mentor Joe Oliver, Willie “the Lion” Smith, Fletcher Henderson, Chicago's Austin High Gang and Paul Whiteman. But it concentrates on Ellington and, especially, Armstrong, who's seen telling Edward R. Murrow that there are only two kinds of music: “good and bad.” But about Armstrong's music, others go into more detail: says Wynton Marsalis, “He is the embodiment of jazz music.”