Jazz on the public airwaves

"JazzAmerica," the story of jazz -- its music and musicians -- will be told in a new series of broadcast specials on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR).

The series will explore jazz as an art form from its origins in this country to its cultural impact worldwide. It will be produced by KCET-TV (Los Angeles) in conjunction with Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (New York), and NPR and is scheduled to be aired in 1981.

The goal is to portray the eras and idioms of jazz and to illustrate how this music, which encourages freedom of expression in the many moods reflective of life, also demands great discipline.