man: a day in the life of charlie parker.more drugs. if you could get a few hours of sleep in between, it would be ok, but then you had to get the money for the drugs. it was a constant merry-go-round, 24 hours a day. and, at the heart, it's going to be about joy, about communication, about this language that is so much more precise than my moving my mouth right now. we tend to have a hard time talking about music, and somehow we think it's the failing of the music. it's not. it's the failing of the words. music is itself a much more exquisite, much more precise form of communication. we human beings are just often a little bit too slow to get it completely, but we made this film for a broad national audience. we didn't make it to please the jazz critics. we made it to please a broad national audience because this is our birthright. this is who we are. this is the celestial music of america, and i want a little old lady in dubuque to tap her toes to all of this stuff, and i think we've done it. if you'd come into the editing

what was revolutionary about what charlie parker was doing? and it's really interesting about the level of musicianship that used to be in popular music. i mean these guys were amazing musicians. and they were trained, and they had a very sophisticated ear. chet used to have this thing, he'd say, man, you know, the average musician, he's talking about the 50s, you know, about what miles particularly, and charlie parker, and dizzy were doing. so exciting. as i started to learn, you know once you learn what they're talking about, then you start to hear it. and then it gets much more exciting. - right. well it's exciting now to think about these guys as the subjects of movies. you know, don cheadle is about to be miles davis in a film. how great to have these stories told. now i want to ask why you made this choice now, so the linklater film all those years ago notwithstanding, you've just come off of boyhood. not the most commercially successful film, but maybe the most critically successful film in almost 30 years, a little bit more than 30 yea

parker crime scene. in 2011, a jury convicted hill of the murders of big charlie and diane.as never firmly established. >> who's bruce hill? do you know that name? >> no. >> ever see him at the farm property, on job sites? >> no, never. >> but rick's lawyer needed proof there was no connection between the two man so he paid hill a visit. >> bruce hill shown was picture of rick gagnon and his words were, i've never seen that cracker [ bleep ] before. bruce hill had been unambiguous and was very blunt that he did not know rick gagnon. >> all hill had to do now was admit that in open court and gagnon might go free. hill flatly refused. once again, rick was out of luck but not hope. >> it was the first piece of good news i had had in a long time. i was excited to see what god was getting ready to do. >> there were developments? >> yes, sir. >> mainly the arrival of a new inmate. >> i was in the chapel at the time, my job assignment. he was brought into the chapel. >> one day the man opened up and stunned rick. he said he had known a guy in jail names, wait for it. robert mullins

and say in jazz, tell me in the last 25 years who is the equal of armstrong and ellington and charlie parker, miles davis, and they'll say, "well we won't know." and i go, that rests my case. - let me just offer you this. any film that is a history of country music in which garth brooks is the point at which it goes black, i'm fine with that. (laughter) free advice, do with it what you will. ken, what a treat to get to see you, to talk to you about this stuff. thank you for being here. - it's my pleasure. - [evan] ken burns, thank you so much. good luck with the film. (applause) - [voiceover] we'd love to have you join us in the studio. visit our website at klru.org/overheard to find invitations to interviews, q and as with our audience and guests, and an archive of past episodes. - beyond country music which is coming out in 2019, and in addition to those five or six films that i've set in motion where i'm serving as executive producer and i'm trying to help other filmmakers help them with fundraising and help them with guidance and stuff like that. my own stuff that we are already started