The celebrated PBS series "The Blues" captures the essence of this unique musical form and delves into its global cultural influence, from its roots in Africa to its inspirational role in today's music. Each of the 7 parts in the series is presented by a different world-famous director. Part 1, Feel Like Going Home (Martin Scorsese) pays homage to the Delta Blues. Musician Corey Harris travels through Mississippi and on to West Africa, exploring the roots of the music. The film celebrates the early Delta bluesmen through original performances (including Willie King, Taj Mahal, Otha Turner and Ali Farka Toure) and rare archival footage featuring Son House, Muddy Waters, and John Lee Hooker. Part 2, The Soul of a Man (Wim Wenders) explores the lives of Wenders' favorite blues artists-Skip James, Blind Willie Johnson, and J. B. Lenoir-in a film that is part history and part personal pilgrimage. The film tells the story of these artists' lives in music through a fictional film-within-a-film, rare archival footage, and treatments of their songs by contemporary musicians, including Bonnie Raitt, Lucinda Williams, Lou Reed, Eagle Eye Cherry, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, the John Spencer Blues Explosion, Cassandra Wilson, Garland Jeffreys, Los Lobos and others. Part 3, The Road to Memphis (Richard Pearce) traces the musical odyssey of blues legend B. B. King in this film that pays tribute to the city that gave birth to a new style of blues. Pearce's homage to Memphis features original performances by B. B. King, Bobby Rush, Rosco Gordon and Ike Turner, as well as historical footage of Howlin' Wolf and Rufus Thomas. Part 4, Warming by the Devil's Fire (Charles Burnett) presents a tale about a young boy's encounter with his family in Mississippi in the 1950s, and intergenerational tensions between the heavenly strains of gospel and the devilish moans of the blues. Part 5, Godfathers and Sons (Marc Levin) travels to Chicago with hip-hop legend Chuck D (of "Public Enemy") and Marshall Chess (heir to the Chess Records legacy) to explore the heyday of Chicago blues as they unite to produce an album that seeks to bring veteran blues players together with contemporary hip-hop musicians. Along with never-before-seen archival footage of Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band are original performances by Koko Taylor, Otis Rush, Magic Slim, Ike Turner, and Sam Lay. Part 6, Red, White and Blues (Mike Figgis) joins musicians such as Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Tom Jones, performing and talking about the music of the early sixties British invasion that reintroduced the blues sound to America. Part 7, Piano Blues (Clint Eastwood) explores Eastwood's life-long passion for piano blues, using a treasure trove of rare historical footage in addition to interviews and performances by such living legends as Pinetop Perkins and Jay McShann, as well as Dave Brubeck and Marcia Ball. (The audio soundtrack for each part is also available separately on CD.)

The history of jazz unfolds in this ten-part documentary series by America's storyteller, producer Ken Burns. You'll travel along the highways and alleyways of America and watch as an American art form emerges on to the world stage. Gripping personal histories and musical milestones are painted on a tapestry of political and social events that not only give a glimpse into the world of music, but reflect the history of a nation as well. This is an important video series that offers a comprehensive look at the birth of jazz and we give it our highest recommendation!

Hosted by Alastair Cooke, the early television series "Omnibus" featured diverse live broadcasts on science, the arts, and the humanities. This four-DVD set of broadcasts by Leonard Bernstein includes seven complete programs: Beethoven's Fifth Symphony (1954); The World of Jazz (1955); The Art of Conducting (1955); American Musical Comedy (1956); Introduction to Modern Music (1957); The Music of Johann Sebastian Bach (1957) and What Makes Opera Grand? (1958), plus a bonus performance of Handel's Messiah, conducted by Leonard Bernstein. Besides composing and conducting, Bernstein was a champion lecturer about music, and these programs, which range from 33 to 76 minutes, were his first opportunities to try out his lecture style on television. The more famous Young People's Concerts, with the New York Philharmonic, began in January 1958, just two months before his final "Omnibus" appearance, and ran through 1972. Though the "Omnibus" programs have been seen only rarely since their original broadcasts, their substance is well known: Bernstein's scripts account for 231 pages of his 1959 essay compilation, "The Joy of Music." These are kinescopes, with their inevitable distortions (and, in some cases, abrupt cuts when the film ran out), and the soundtracks are muddy at times, but Bernstein's presentations are treasures of inestimable value to students and musicians everywhere!