Ben Webster, Cineaste!

Ben Webster (1909–73), an American jazz tenor saxophonist from Kansas City—known for his tough, raspy, and brutal tone on stomps (with his own distinctive growls), and, on ballads, for his warm and sentimental sound—spent his last days in the Netherlands, where an 8 mm camera was his companion alongside his saxophone.

These framegrabs are from the Dutch documentary Big Ben: Ben Webster in Europe (1966), directed by Johann van der Keuken. It features appearances by Don Byas, Michiel de Ruyter, Dolf Verspoor, Jimmy Parsons, and Cees Slinger. Ben shoots, and he projects. Like his playing, his homemade films are a reflection of a soulful and vulnerable individual.

There is even a moment when van der Keuken alludes to the beast inside Webster (who, because of his violent behavior after drinking, was nicknamed The Brute) by inter-cutting shots of wild animals in a zoo and artificial advertising photographs with a haunting close-up of Webster in darkness.