Big Ben: Ben Webster in Europe

I would echo absolutely every single statement made by the previous IMDB reviewer of this short documentary.

Gimmicky, semiotically fragmented, and barely coherent, this is less a portrait of the legendary saxophonist Ben Webster than an oddball conceptual art piece that intercuts well shot b&w footage of Webster at home in Amsterdam with strange cutaways that have only a tenuous connection to the subject's music. Components include a trip to a saxophone factory and another jaunt to an Amsterdam zoo where we watch Webster feed monkeys. Any snatches that we get of Webster performing are either placed out of sync with the soundtrack, interrupted with smash cuts to unrelated action, or - in one case, laden with the dissonant noise of machinery from said factory. I love Webster without reservation - as a musician and a personality - but found this so called documentary execrable and obnoxious, and an insult to his legacy. I cannot imagine who on earth would ever want or need to see this.

Footnote: at the same time that I saw this, I also happened to acquire the Webster episode of Jazz 625, a concert series from British television. The Webster installment features 35 exhilarating minutes of Ben live performance with a trio, and for one number, duetting with a special guest, fellow saxophonist Ronnie Scott. If you're interested in Webster, see that small gem of a program. Not this garbage.

I am most disappointed in this Ben Webster video. For a professional video production that has actually been released, I think it must be one of the worst jazz videos ever made. It looks like it was shot by rank amateurs.

At the beginning of the movie we are shown short film snippets of workers in a saxophone factory. We are not told who the manufacturer was but they are alleged to have produced eleven hundred saxophones PER MONTH! I refuse to believe that there were eleven hundred saxophone players on the entire planet who would be continually purchasing brand new saxophones per month from all the saxophone companies combined. But this is by the way.

Next we are shown a few disjointed shots of Webster sans shoes sitting, walking, looking out of the window, playing piano (the best thing in the whole video) and practicing saxophone in his house.

Then there are some unsuccessful shots with music playing in the background of musicians superimposed over (or under) a large expanse of rippling water which I took to be artistic expressions a la the recently deceased Bert Stern who directed Jazz On A Summer's Day. But in monochrome.

We see who I took to be Webster's landlady talking to Webster in Dutch about tea and cake and telling him of her intending to take him to visit the zoo on the upcoming Sunday.

You may have noticed that I haven't mentioned any footage of Webster actually playing in situ. Well, the fact is that in the whole of this video, not one complete performance of a number is shown – just a muddled jumping about from one tune to another in hops, skips and jumps, here, there and everywhere throughout the video.

Among other uninteresting things we see Webster playing pool, making tea, animals at the zoo, riding in a train, and riding in a car.

One scene is of Webster showing some home movies with his projector.

This whole thing looks like one of those excruciating home movies.

I hope one day I'll see a decent video of Ben Webster, perhaps a TV show or a concert.

This one doesn't cut it.