BACK TO THE SOURCE
Film/documentary by Robin Phillips
Film/documentary by Robin Phillips
One of the difficulties with jazz is explaining its roots and how it developed. We know it is America's gift to the world, but wouldn't it be great if someone made a film about it, traced the jazz and blues path in America, and shared the journey with us? Well, now that film has been made. English jazz musician and presenter Robin Phillips and Lithuanian-Italian filmmaker Domininkaz Zalys took a once in a lifetime trip with two cars and a Harley-Davidson (Phillips on the Harley) to create a music documentary that retraces the path of jazz and blues from Chicago to New Orleans, visiting venues synonymous with the music and seeking to understand the art form to which Phillips has dedicated his life. 'Back To The Source' has received awards, including 'Best Feature Film' at the King's Cross Film Awards. The film is also part of the Official Selection at the New Creators Film Awards and Best Documentary in the December Parai Musical International Awards. It was shown at the Clarksdale Film and Music Festival in Clarksdale, Mississippi, in 2020 and at the Doc'n Roll Film Festival in London later in the same year.
In the documentary, after some preliminaries getting the bike and sorted for the journey, Phillips chats to the camera from venues like Buddy Guys and Andy's Jazz Club in Chicago, St Louis, and Nashville, among others. He delivers stories of the journey at each location, plus fascinating facts about the spread of jazz and blues with the great migration and how it left New Orleans, changed, and developed. The soundtrack is engaging blues and rock.
There are interviews with St Louis Blues club owner John May, Clarksdale tourist chief Bubba O'Keefe, David Hood, bass player with The Swampers, Dexter Allen, and New Orleans saxophone player James Martin.
Phillip's engagement with the music and natural affinity with people comes across in the film. He even plays in a blues club when two musicians don't turn up. His enthusiasm and clear-eyed vision are apparent. He enjoys talking to people and drags snippets and interesting facts from them with ease.
There are some lovely interludes in the film, like when a guy approaches Phillips as he sits by a statue on a traffic island (there is a story behind the statue), and they strike up a conversation. Then there is the visit to Sound Studios and a visit from Steve Milton, who chatted about recording techniques. He talks to Watermelon Slim, a blues musician, about his childhood, singing, and much more. He visits W.C Handy's plaque at Tutwiler, Tallahatchie County, where Handy is said to have heard an old man playing slide guitar as he waited for a train. He took the sound to Memphis, recorded it, and so the blues spread. He chats to Dexter Allen in Jackson and plays with a band in a studio. And he duets with a random man in the street, the pair harmonising intuitively. He visits New Orleans, experiences the incredible street music and the crowd at the Blue Nile in Frenchman Street, witnesses a New Orleans funeral, and finds it emotional - the sense of the heart of jazz beating in the city is palpable.
In Congo Square, he talks of the early jazz, and he goes to a gig at The Spotted Cat, where he meets James Martin after his first set. Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Swing Orchestra in Snug Harbor had the same effect on Robin Phillips as they had on me four years ago. He talks of the constant conversation between the musicians as they played.
In Robin's words, the film/documentary is 'a hell of a trip,' and we get to see, hear, and feel the journey with him. He clearly loves the journey itself as well as the music and people he travels with and encounters. There is banter and delightful surprises, and this journey is more than a musical trip - it feels like the journey of Phillips himself as he comes face to face with places and people he had only heard of before. At times, he is overwhelmed; at others, he fits right in like he was born to make films about music. The film is now available on YouTube (https://youtu.be/sDSadbKwVgU) and at www.thejazzpresenter.com.
There will be a screening in London's iconic Water Rats venue on Grays Inn road. Dates will be revealed on Phillips' website but go along, get yourself through the bar to the large room at the back of the venue, and enjoy. Recommended viewing.
Appraisal by Sammy Stein
In the documentary, after some preliminaries getting the bike and sorted for the journey, Phillips chats to the camera from venues like Buddy Guys and Andy's Jazz Club in Chicago, St Louis, and Nashville, among others. He delivers stories of the journey at each location, plus fascinating facts about the spread of jazz and blues with the great migration and how it left New Orleans, changed, and developed. The soundtrack is engaging blues and rock.
There are interviews with St Louis Blues club owner John May, Clarksdale tourist chief Bubba O'Keefe, David Hood, bass player with The Swampers, Dexter Allen, and New Orleans saxophone player James Martin.
Phillip's engagement with the music and natural affinity with people comes across in the film. He even plays in a blues club when two musicians don't turn up. His enthusiasm and clear-eyed vision are apparent. He enjoys talking to people and drags snippets and interesting facts from them with ease.
There are some lovely interludes in the film, like when a guy approaches Phillips as he sits by a statue on a traffic island (there is a story behind the statue), and they strike up a conversation. Then there is the visit to Sound Studios and a visit from Steve Milton, who chatted about recording techniques. He talks to Watermelon Slim, a blues musician, about his childhood, singing, and much more. He visits W.C Handy's plaque at Tutwiler, Tallahatchie County, where Handy is said to have heard an old man playing slide guitar as he waited for a train. He took the sound to Memphis, recorded it, and so the blues spread. He chats to Dexter Allen in Jackson and plays with a band in a studio. And he duets with a random man in the street, the pair harmonising intuitively. He visits New Orleans, experiences the incredible street music and the crowd at the Blue Nile in Frenchman Street, witnesses a New Orleans funeral, and finds it emotional - the sense of the heart of jazz beating in the city is palpable.
In Congo Square, he talks of the early jazz, and he goes to a gig at The Spotted Cat, where he meets James Martin after his first set. Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Swing Orchestra in Snug Harbor had the same effect on Robin Phillips as they had on me four years ago. He talks of the constant conversation between the musicians as they played.
In Robin's words, the film/documentary is 'a hell of a trip,' and we get to see, hear, and feel the journey with him. He clearly loves the journey itself as well as the music and people he travels with and encounters. There is banter and delightful surprises, and this journey is more than a musical trip - it feels like the journey of Phillips himself as he comes face to face with places and people he had only heard of before. At times, he is overwhelmed; at others, he fits right in like he was born to make films about music. The film is now available on YouTube (https://youtu.be/sDSadbKwVgU) and at www.thejazzpresenter.com.
There will be a screening in London's iconic Water Rats venue on Grays Inn road. Dates will be revealed on Phillips' website but go along, get yourself through the bar to the large room at the back of the venue, and enjoy. Recommended viewing.
Appraisal by Sammy Stein
