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still from Big Ben: Ben Webster in Europe (Johan van der Keuken, NL 1967)

Jazz in Amsterdam

All that Jazz: Jazz in Amsterdam

Wat did jazz legend Ben Webster do during his two-year stay in Amsterdam? The answer can be found in this programme of three short films about the Amsterdam jazz scene of the ’60s: Jazz... in Amsterdam, Jazz and Poetry and Big Ben: Ben Webster in Europe. Screening on vintage 16mm.

poster All that Jazz: Jazz in Amsterdam
Three short films on the Amsterdam jazz scene of the ’60s. Screening on 16mm.

Programme

  • Jazz... in Amsterdam (Peter Witsel, NL 1960, 12')

    On the jazz scene around Amsterdam’s Leidseplein square, where young people come to bars such as Lucky Star and Caramella to listen to their favourite music and dance. One young man explains what draws him here.

  • still from Jazz and Poetry (Louis van Gasteren, NL 1964)

    Jazz and Poetry (Louis van Gasteren, NL 1964, 14')

    Impression of performance by poet Ted Jones and jazz musicians. In Amsterdam jazz club Sheherazade, a short set by Peter Kuiters Modern Jazzgroup is followed by an introduction by Simon Vinkenoog, in which he announces a new aspect of Sheherazade: the club’s first-ever poetry reading. Black American poet Ted Jones (Beat Generation) reads several poems, with accompaniment from the jazz quartet.

  • still from Big Ben: Ben Webster in Europe (Johan van der Keuken, NL 1967)

    Big Ben: Ben Webster in Europe (Johan van der Keuken, NL 1967, 32')

    Portrait of tenor saxophonist and jazz legend Ben Webster during his two-year stay in Amsterdam. Van der Keuken follows Webster during performances, in cafés and during conversations with his landlady. In his conversations with Van der Keuken, Webster reflects on the past. On the fantastic time when he played in Duke Ellington’s celebrated big band. In this film too, Van der Keuken displays his highly idiosyncratic working method: lots of short visual sequences that probe the subject, surround it, let it go again and then approach it from another angle.

Details

Production year

2022

Length

58 min.

Country

NL

Part of

All That Jazz

All That Jazz: a scintillating programme on jazz and film featuring classics, live performances and a focus on exceptional avant-garde and activist filmmakers with a passion for jazz. From Miles Davis to Vincent de Boer, from Sun Ra to Ornette Coleman.

Learn more
An abstract illustration of a figure in a trilby hat playing a piano on the left and a figure on the right playing the saxophone. (campaign image All That Jazz (© René Gast & Yvonne Kroese (wallstories.org)))
still from Jazz and Poetry (Louis van Gasteren, NL 1964)
still from Big Ben: Ben Webster in Europe (Johan van der Keuken, NL 1967)
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