I have a weird listening relationship with jazz. I don’t listen to it often but, when I go through a phase where I do, I listen to it almost exclusively.
So, I was aware of the legendary Blue Note label before watching 1997 documentary Blue Note: A Story of Modern Jazz, but didn’t know much about it.
Perhaps the biggest surprise to me was the founders were German immigrants. Alfred Lion appeared to largely run the business while Francis Wolff took the photos which graced the label’s legendary album covers.
And these weren’t just white guys looking to capitalize on Black culture. As Freddie Hubbard puts it: “Alfred would talk to you about what you wanted to do. He really loved the music”. Ron Carter later talks about how Alfred was always concerned as to whether or not a track swings. Gil Melle tells of Lion wanting to record Thelonious Monk before anybody else through the artist was anything special.
This production values of this documentary betray its origins as something made for German television in the late 90’s. Some of the interview clips appear to be in standard definition digital and have noticeable artifacting. Other elements, especially stills, appear to be in high definition. Artless overlays provide additional information, such as names for the various figures interviewed.
It is interesting the breadth of people talking about the label here. I wasn’t surprised Kareen Abdul Jabar is a devotee of the label, but it was nonetheless a bit jarring to see him discussing it in this film.
Then there’s the higher ratio of German-speaking people than I would have expected in a film about a jazz label, even when it was made for the German market, and concerns a label founded by two Germans.
Largely, however, it is jazz legends speaking on camera, including Herbie Hancock and Max Roach. Interspersed throughout the runtime is excellent performance footage of artists such as Hancock, Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins.
Some interesting observations on the popularity of the genre in Europe is discussed by Carlos Santana and Melle. The latter has some especially trenchant insights into the phenomenon, chalking it up to how it was hard to find jazz records over there. In the US, where it was less popular, he compares it to living somewhere where there are always diamonds all over the ground, so a person living there wouldn’t know those objects are supposed to be something special. I like that analogy.
One anecdote I liked, even if it ends in heartbreak, concerns keyboardist Jimmy Smith. Lion actually wanted to sell the label just so he could become Smith’s road manager, and so would be able to hear the artist perform every night. Unfortunately for Lion, Smith was wooed away by the bigger purse strings of the Verve label. Apparently, this gutted the Blue Note founder
Perhaps the most peculiar aspect of this documentary is the footage of what were then contemporary artists. The label’s original output may be timeless, but DJ Smash’s performance, using samples from their catalog in a performance in front of a video screen, is so firmly rooted in 1996 that it might as well be preserved in amber.
Documentary
Watched on EuroArts blu-ray