Who is the Jazz Video Guy? You know, the guy whose photo sits like a postage stamp next to many of the best jazz videos on YouTube. Perhaps you've heard his voice off-camera asking questions of Sonny Rollins, Joe Lovano, Orrin Keepnews and other jazz legends in video podcasts. Or maybe you've been to his video blog. But who exactly is the person behind the photo and voice? Where did he come from? And what does he want?
Bret Primack, it turns out, has had quite a past.
In Part 1 of my two-part interview with the self-styled Jazz Video Guy, Bret talks about his early love of jazz and film, being influenced by Francis Ford Coppola, studying with Martin Scorsese at NYU's Film School in the late 1960s, and why he chose to open each Orrin Keepnews video podcast for Concord Records with the legendary producer barking: "You do whatever you want. You're running that end of the show, sir. I'm just here to respond":
Bret Primack: West Hartford, CT. My first exposure to jazz was through two movies: The Glenn Miller Story and
JW: When did you start making films?
BP: When I was 17 years old. The first was about a young guy dealing with female rejection. I used friends as the
JW: Did you make any other films in high school?
BP: When I was a senior I made a film for Class Night, our
JW: Did you remove it?
BP: No. I locked myself in the projection booth and screened the film just as it was. The next day I was suspended. I always had a problem with authority [laughs].
JW: Where did you go to college?
BP: New York University Film School. As fate would
JW: What did Scorsese think?
BP: He loved it. He had just edited Woodstock, and Warner Brothers had given him money to start work on Mean Streets. He left NYU in 1971, just before I graduated.
JW: Deep down, do you think Rough Ride was an inspiration for Paul Schrader’s screenplay for Scorsese’s Taxi Driver in 1976?
BP: I have no idea. There are similarities, of course. But who knows?
JW: What did you do after college?
BP: I went to work for small company making industrial films and drove a cab. Making independent films was hard in New York then. It was very expensive, and the city’s
JW: When did you start to combine jazz and computers?
BP: In the mid-1990s. But I had been computer savvy since 1984, when I first bought an Apple IIe for word
JW: When did video start to play a role in what you were doing?
BP: In 1999, GMN, a London-based company, hired me to tape live audio and video at the North Sea Jazz Festival and at Birdland in New York. The results were then streamed at their website. But this was still the 56K-modem era, so everything was sluggish. The idea, unfortunately, was ahead of the technology.
JW: Were you interviewing jazz musicians on camera on the side?
BP: Yes. Throughout the 1990s I would take my camera
JW: What was the big turning point for you?
BP: In 2004, Telarc Records asked me to interview saxophonists Dave Liebman, Michael Brecker and Joe Lovano [pictured]. Telarc did the editing, and the result
JW: What is Planet Bret?
BP: In 2001, I moved to Arizona and started producing websites. I was in Arizona by myself at the time and needed a name for my company. I came up with Planet Bret from the feeling I had there. It was like living on another planet.
JW: When did you start producing video podcasts for Concord Records?
BP: In 2006, Joe Vella, an audio podcaster, subcontracted a video project for Concord Records’ release of Fearless Leader, the label’s first box of John Coltrane’s Prestige recordings. Joe gave me an audio interview he did with Coltrane biographer Lewis Porter. I used it along with rare photos, music and my narration to produce a video that’s still popular on YouTube.
JW: What happened next?
BP: I heard that Concord was planning to release reissues of
JW: Did you pitch it?
BP: I flew to California to meet with Dave Henson, Concord’s new-media marketing manager, and the idea was a go.
JW: Did you know Orrin?
BP: Yes. I had known him for years. In 1997, when I started BirdLives.com, an early jazz blog, Orrin would e-mail me corrections.
JW: Was he on board with what you wanted to do for the series?
BP: Orrin initially said no. He said he was writing an autobiography and didn’t want what he was writing to appear somewhere else first. He didn’t know much about the Internet at the time. So it took me about six months of phone calls to get him to agree.
JW: I find it interesting that each clip opens with Keepnews becoming annoyed at you. That took courage on your part.
BP: As a film school grad, I always look for the truth when I pick up a camera. I knew that Orrin’s edginess was a big
JW: How did you run the taping of Orrin?
BP: We did them over two days—in two, four-hour
JW: Orrin seemed to be very cooperative.
BP: He was. As someone who has interviewed more than 300 artists, I know that most people need about 10
JW: Did Orrin see the results?
BP: Yes.
JW: What was his reaction?
BP: As you know, Orrin isn’t one to heap praise. I think he said, “Oh, now I see I what you were trying to do.” I don’t think he originally conceptualized how they would turn out.
JW: The Keepnews podcasts have demonstrated that CD promotions can also be documentary art.
BP: I think the series set new standards and helped record
JW: How often are the Keepnews podcasts viewed?
BP: So far there have been about 600,000 views. That’s 10,000 views a week. The most popular episodes are the ones on Bill Evans, Cannonball Adderley and Wes Montgomery.
Tomorrow, in Part 2, Bret talks about Sonny Rollins, how he became close to the tenor saxophonist, spending time with Sonny in his backyard rehearsal shed, building Sonny's website, documenting his concerts, and the video that made Sonny tear up.
Bird Lives? That was my intro to Bret -- and what an intro it was!
Jason Crane
http://thejazzsession.com
Posted by: Jason Crane | April 13, 2009 at 12:20 PM