Whiteman's white man and woman depiction of the origins of jazz

A person could go snowblind trying to find anybody whose ancestors came from Africa. I wonder what Louis Armstrong's or Duke Ellington's depiction of the origins of jazz would have been. :) I suppose it's positive that they didn't put musicians in black face but they could have hired some African-Americans or African-Caribbeans for the movie. I'd love to hear Ken Burns talk about this movie.


By JOEL ROBERTS
January 12, 2005

Louis Armstrong & Paul Whiteman: Two Kings of Jazz
Joshua Berrett
Yale University Press
2004
ISBN 0-300-10384-0

The worst thing that ever happened to Paul Whiteman's legacy was the 1930 film that dubbed him "the King of Jazz." Largely as a result of that unfortunate moniker he became an object of scorn among jazz critics, who—when they remembered him at all—cited him as a glaring example of the racism inherent in early jazz that would promote a mediocre white bandleader to the throne rightfully belonging to Louis Armstrong or Duke Ellington....

Whiteman was, indeed, one of the most popular jazz-associated artists of the 1920s in terms of record sales and income. And he did make some noteworthy recordings with the likes of Bix Beiderbecke, Bing Crosby and the Dorsey brothers. But Whiteman's agenda—"making a lady out of jazz"; that is, making it acceptable fare for white concert halls—was hardly the stuff jazz legends are made of. As Berrett makes clear, Whiteman's main focus was not art but money. He "was primarily a businessman, an entrepreneur." A notable contrast with Armstrong, whose "life was his horn and his music." And despite the cordial relations Whiteman apparently had with many black artists—Berrett cites praise for Whiteman from Ellington and others, and an incident in which he offered assistance to Armstrong—he was behind the curve in letting blacks into his band and didn't record an integrated studio session until 1942 when Billie Holiday sang with him....