Han Bennink

How do you become Peter Brötzmann? How do you become what you are: a painter, a musician, an absolute artist? Europe was nothing but a ruin and shame possessed the heart of the young Germans. They needed to invent, scream, regain a lost brotherhood. Overcome this silence! That’s how some young German, British, Dutch, Belgian… musicians made Europe exist long before Maastrich and have kept on cherishing, imperturbably, their freedom! They are no longer twenty-year-olds, but others have followed. They set themselves one constraint: reinvent everything every time. A way to take the very instant into account, to let the unexpected in, to match to the world.

A documentary about the weeks leading up to the early death of jazz legend Eric Dolphy. Centered around his last month alive and the titular record done in Holland with Misha Mengelberg and Han Bennink, the documentary traces his LA roots up through the last Charles Mingus tour that led Dolphy to stay in Europe in 1964. The interviews are with a host of contemporaries like Richard Davis, Ted Curson, Nathan Davis and those involved in the Last Date recording. The rare archival footage of Dolphy is riveting. The pictures provided by friends and family also show an intense young man whose future success was assured.

Matthijs looks back in surprise. With humor, music and other surprises.