The problem with Burns, apart from tone, is one of pacing. He tends to go deep in the early installments, and oftentimes comes up with very rich material. But then, after 12 hours are spent and he still has half the story to tell, Burns cranks up the speed and glosses over the latter segments. He did this in "Baseball," which, for the most part, I rather liked (the first 4 hours are excellent). I hear he does this again in "Jazz," and I'll be interested to see how much time he spends on Monk and Coltrane, who in their own ways were as influential as was Louis Armstrong, who Burns is spending many hours on.
DP