Media Review
Abstract
Blue Note: A Story of Modern Jazz Julian Benedikt, writer and director. DVD. EuroArts Entertainment OHG and SDR/ARTE, 2007. EuroArts DVD 2005678. $28.98. Julian Benedikt's Blue Note: A Story of Modern Jazz , originally a two-part television broadcast revised and released on VHS in 1997, is part documentary and part tribute in the form of a multimedia collage. Initially created at the 1996 Jazzopen Festival in Stuttgart, it takes interviews, clips from live performances, photographs and documentary footage, and combines them in a style reminiscent of the classic Blue Note look that the company established in the 1950s and 1960s. While this approach results in a somewhat selective and disjointed presentation of the record label's history, it also provides viewers with an aesthetic experience similar to that created by Blue Note albums. One gets the impression that the purpose of this film is not so much to carefully document history but to demonstrate the influential artistic style of Blue Note in a variety of ways and to explain how that style remains relevant today. The collage-like aspects of the film can be found on both a small and large scale. Smaller collages, compiled from photographs, album covers, video