Big Ben: Ben Webster in Europe
Big Ben: Ben Webster in Europe
| 01 January 1967 (USA)
Big Ben: Ben Webster in Europe Trailers

In the late sixties, the American saxophone player and living jazz legend Ben Webster lived in Amsterdam for a year. Webster, who was born in Kansas City in 1909, was a unique personality in the world of jazz and blues. In the thirties, he played with all the great names. During his Amsterdam period, he stayed with an elderly landlady, Mrs Hardloper, with whom he appeared on a national talk show. In conversations with Van der Keuken, he muses on the past; on the fantastic experience of playing in the renowned Duke Ellington band; or on one of his best friends, who was so deft at eating with a knife and fork. Short, fragmented remarks, which Van der Keuken has edited in a loose, improvised editing style.

Reviews
Redwarmin

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

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Tockinit

not horrible nor great

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Grimossfer

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

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Cristal

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

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melnar1

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.

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