Bert Joris (above) is a Belgian trumpeter and flugelhornist with a beautiful tone who has been recording since 1978. Let me give you a taste. In 1987, Bert recorded with legendary Belgian vibraphonist Fats Sadi on a spectacular album called Sadi's Nonet. If you dig Miles Davis's Birth of the Cool, you'll love this album. Here's Thanks a Million...
Recently, Jef Somers in Belgium sent along a link to a 48-minute documentary on Bert. It's directed by Jef's brother, Steven Somers, who works for a Flemish television production company.
The documentary focuses on the evolution of a single song. It opens with Bert improvising in a tree in his garden and coming up with an idea and ends with the song, Sundown, fully realized during a performance at the Antwerp Jazz Festival. In between, we see and hear Bert develop the song, weighing options and making decisions. The resulting song and playing are gorgeous.
Here's the documentary A Song Is Born: Bert Joris's "Sundown"...
A special thanks to Jef Somers in Belgium.
For more on Bert Joris, go here.
JazzWax tracks: The title track of Bert's most recent album, Afterglow, with Italian pianist Enrico Pieranunzi, can be found here.
