Big Ben: Ben Webster in Europe (1967)

BIG BEN: BEN WEBSTER IN EUROPE
Netherlands, 1967 Regia: Johan van der Keuken
F.: Johan van der Keuken. M.: Ruud Bernard, Johan van der Keuken. Int.: Ben Webster, Don Byas, Cees Slings, Michiel de Ruyteras, Michiel de Ruyteras, Peter Ympa. Prod.: Johan van der Keuken.

An intimate, curious portrait of American ex-pat tenor saxophonist Ben Webster, shot between March and June 1967 in Amsterdam, where he eventually died in 1972. Though the title suggests outright praise, van der Keuken goes deeper into Webster’s sound and character by creating visual metaphors (a conversation about the blues cuts to a shot of a knife), relating anecdotes and giving a brief history of the man. Toying with the possibilities of the interplay between sound and image, the film treats Webster as one of the architects of tenor sax by visiting a saxophone factory, where industrial noise subsides allowing us to hear Webster’s luscious vibrato sound. Treated with warmth and respect, this former member of Duke Ellington’s band is seen doing various activities such as cooking, talking to his hospitable landlady, shooting pool and using his 8mm camera. When, later on, van der Keuken incorporates excerpts from what are presumably Webster’s films, jazz and cinema seem even more interwoven than first assumed. (Ehsan Khoshbakht)

RIP Peter Schmidlin (1947-2015)

Image courtesy of Dragan Tasic

Swiss jazz drummer Peter Schmidlin, who had played and recorded with Dexter Gordon, Lee Konitz, Dizzy Reece, Slide Hampton, and Don Byas, passed away last Monday, May 25, 2015. He was 68.

Known for his adaptability, perfect sense of timing, and a tasteful touch of swing, Schmidlin was one of the finest European drummers, as well as a producer responsible for issuing on record some of the best American jazz in Switzerland. It's a shame, though not entirely unpredictable, that his death remained unnoticed outside his homeland country.

"Peter Schmidlin was very popular with the US jazz musicians as a swinging drummer," writes Urs Blindenbacher in his obituary of this legend of Swiss Jazz. Blindenbacher also praises Schmildin for his role in connecting the separated worlds of French speaking Swiss jazz with that of the German speaking one.

Peter Schmidlin was born in 1947 in Riehen. He picked up the instrument at 14 and taught himself playing and mastering it. Only two years later, he was named as the best drummer at the Zürich Jazz Festival.

Young Peter with Buck Clayton and Sir Charles Thompson at Casa Bar Zürich

His professional career took off in 1965 and soon he found himself accompanying visiting American musicians, as well as jazz expats and exiles residing in western and northern Europe, a task which continued to the last months of his life.

In later years, he was a permanent member of three major jazz trios, respectively led by Tele Montoliu, Horace Parlan, and Jimmy Woode.

Le Jazz à Paris

Duke Ellington in Paris

‎"America is my country and Paris is my hometown." -- Gertrude Stein

Jazz found its second home in Paris, France. Josephine Baker and Charleston dance paved the way for Sidney Bechet and La Nouvelle-Orléans music. It started in Pigalle and moved to Saint-Germain. Surrealist were fascinated by it, but it was existentialists who cherished it. French films used a good deal of it as their soundtrack, or even their story. Cinéma de papa liked it (Marcel Carné) and the rebellious figures of modern cinema, known as Nouvelle Vague (New Wave), liked it even more: a generation confronted another generation, nevertheless jazz stood there as their only concurrent kick.

The anti-colonialist attitude and a certain tendency toward exotica made Paris of post-WWI the place for American drifters and jazz community. They were free, accepted and treated like kings. "The best of America drifts to Paris," said F. Scott Fitzgerald, "the American in Paris is the best American." So it was when Louis Armstrong, Benny Carter, Lionel Hampton, Kenny Clarke, Miles Davis, Bill Coleman, Don Byas, Bud Powell and many other resided in the city for shorter or longer periods.