Early in the new documentary Chasing Trane, Benny Golson recalls his friendship with John Coltrane, complaining that the iconic saxophonist made him do all the talking. “He was quiet,” Golson says. “He never talked—until he put that saxophone in his mouth.” Director John Scheinfeld, never a diehard jazz fan before making Chasing Trane, discovered Coltrane’s…Read More
German bassist Eberhard Weber, closely identified with the ECM sound, has long been appreciated for his unique voice as an instrumentalist, playing a custom-designed five-string electric-acoustic upright, and as a composer, employing various strains of chamber jazz, new music, contemporary classical and avant-minded material. Weber’s legacy, including a measurable impact on European jazz, was celebrated…Read More
Extras include insight-filled featurettes…Read More
On Chet Baker, the trappings of biopics, and more…Read More
A bizarre action-movie narrative derails Don Cheadle’s long-anticipated jazz flick…Read More
Spirit and story top biography in Robert Budreau’s inventive “Born to Be Blue”…Read More
The Unity Sessions strives to capture the connections, both musical and extramusical, shared by the members of guitarist Pat Metheny’s most recent working group, the Unity Band: saxophonist Chris Potter, bassist Ben Williams, drummer Antonio Sanchez and keyboardist/vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Giulio Carmassi. Metheny wanted to document the musical and human rapport developing within the unit, but he…Read More
It’s hard to overestimate how eagerly fusion fans anticipated JACO, the first full-length documentary on Jaco Pastorius, the game-changing electric bass virtuoso and gifted composer. Directed by Paul Marchand and Stephen Kijak, the film-nearly six years in the making-became a reality thanks to its producer and cowriter, Metallica bassist and Pastorius superfan Robert Trujillo. It’s…Read More
The films of Robert Mugge engage crucially not only with the sounds but also the philosophies of the artists whose work they explore, and it is difficult to imagine two more philosophically engaged artists than the incendiary songwriter/vocalist Gil Scott-Heron (1949-2011) and the exploratory keyboardist, composer and bandleader Sun Ra (1914-1993). In two classic documentaries,…Read More
Branford Marsalis’ 2002 album, Footsteps of Our Fathers, which included his quartet’s recitation of John Coltrane’s four-part suite A Love Supreme, drew mostly favorable reviews, though at least one critic (ahem) found it stiff, emotionless and unnecessary. Fifteen months after recording Footsteps, however, the Branford Marsalis Quartet gave a performance of A Love Supreme at…Read More
