I have the Ken Burns 5 disc set from that documentary. It’s amazing.
Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker are my two favorite instrumentalists, and Duke Ellington is probably my favorite composer (though Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw are right up there). I love the early stuff, too. Sidney Bechet, Jelly Roll Morton, etc.
The only guy I can’t get into is Coltrane. There is something very dark about his music. I think it has to do with all that Hindu crap he got into.
I suggest the disc set for sure. The documentary was very good, too.
Duke Ellington is a major, major composer that deserves to be studied alongside the greatest musical figures the west has ever produced.
Personally, I think of Coltrane almost as a figure of intellectual history....really, almost European. Yes, he is in some respects very American. But his whole philosophical orientation, and his music coming to an end...it is very strange, and sort of Hegelian. I think he took things a little too seriously.
Louis Armstrong is one of the most important figures in any of the arts in the 20th century.
(All that said, I am no expert on jazz, or even music...I listen, and try to learn and study, and I like all of it....but I am far from an expert).