American Patchwork: Songs and Stories of America

S1 E1

American Patchwork: Songs and Stories of America — Season 1, Episode 1: Jazz Parades: Feet Don't Fail Me Now

Documentary58 min1 season, 5 episodes

Episode synopsis

A celebration of New Orleans’ musical culture — from its piano bars and barrelhouses to brass bands and street parades, with their colorful, riotous, and symbolic second lines, in which the community plays an essential part in the performance. Archival film footage, photographs, interviews with and performances by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Mardi Gras Indians, and Danny Barker tell the story of the New Orleans tradition.

About American Patchwork: Songs and Stories of America

From 1978 to 1985 Alan Lomax traveled the American South and Southwest with a television crew to document regional folklore with deep historical roots. From the resulting 400 hours of footage came the five-program series American Patchwork, which aired on PBS in 1991.

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