LAST DATE / DE LAATSTE SESSIE (BP054) DVD
Musical documentary about the versatile alto saxophone and bass clarinet player, flautist and composer Eric Dolphy. Dolphy was born in Los Angeles in 1928 and died in Berlin in 1964. His music is still very much alive. The documentary is a combination of an Eric Dolphy biography, and a reconstruction of his last tour. During his last tour, a few weeks before his death, Dolphy had sessions with the trio Mischa Mengelberg, Jacques Schols and Han Bennink. They finished their tour with a radio session resulting in Dolphy’s last album Last Date, often considered to be his best recording.
The documentary focuses on the last radio recording, made in Hilversum, and is inspired by the six different tracks of the Last Date record. The prologue and epilogue are associated with aspects of Dolphy’s personality and music. He was not a run of the mill jazz musician. Dolphy had an amiable character. He would neither drink nor smoke. He was not into drugs and fatally unaware of the fact that he suffered from diabetes. A few weeks after his appearance in Holland he suddenly died in Berlin, just before a planned tour.
Apart from the documentary the Last Date recording is on the DVD. Moreover some pictures of Dolphy at work are included, and photos shot by Ton van Wageningen during Dolphy’s Hilversum session. A discography is included, as well as an interview with filmmaker Hans Hylkema about his inspiration and motive to make this documentary.
director: Hans Hylkema / camera: Deen van der Zaken / sound: Piotr van Dijk, Lucas Boeke / editor: Ot Louw /animation: Gerrit van Dijk
production: Marian Brouwer / The Netherlands, 1991
Musicians The Last Date: Eric Dolphy – flute, bass clarinet, altsax / Misha Mengelberg - piano / Han Bennink - drums / Jacques Schols - bas
DVD9 / all-regions / 4:3 / color & black and white / Dolby 2.0 / 92 min. + extra’s
Dutch / English spoken and/or subtitled /extra’s: interview / photogallery/ poem by Remco Campert / discography
