Saxophone Colossus Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

Saxophone Colossus Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 25, 2017

It’s interesting to note (no pun intended) that after a brief introduction featuring this documentary's focal subject and his wife on a New York City park bench, venerable music documentarian Robert Mugge simply plops his camera down (more or less, anyway) during an outdoor performance by the equally venerable tenor sax master Sonny Rollins and lets Rollins blow for close to ten minutes as Saxophone Colossus begins. Mugge, whose long career has frequently profiled what some might consider “cult musicians”, has almost always offered fascinating takes on his subjects in films like Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise, The Return of Rubén Blades, and Gospel According to Al Green, but typically these efforts emphasize talking head segments as much as any live performances. That ratio is reversed pretty dramatically in Sonny Rollins Saxophone Colossus, with long, lingering sequences featuring nothing but music, despite the participation of Rollins and his wife, along with a trio of noted jazz critics. The result is unusually “informative”, though perhaps in a different way than many music documentaries typically are. It’s as if Mugge is (probably wisely) suggesting that there’s no way to properly describe Rollins’ approach, and it’s best to simply listen to the man.

Rollins, who is still alive and kicking at the fantastic age of 87 as this review is being written, is credited with being one of the first tenor players to adapt the “Charlie Parker sound” to that instrument, something that had previously thought to be impossible, at least by the critical class, most of whom have never picked up an instrument, let alone played one. While some (frankly probably including me) might want to quibble with the frequently repeated assertion that Rollins is the “greatest living improviser”, there’s absolutely no arguing that his volcanic approach toward his instrument is unforgettable, not just in terms of his choices of phrasing, but in the actual sound of Rollins’ tenor.

The two main performances captured here include a winning outdoor set with a small jazz ensemble that sees Rollins just tearing through “G Man” (and others), with a really incredible mishap documented which won't be spoiled here (suffice it to say it's a sterling example of "the show must go on"). There's also a more “formal” outing in Japan featuring Rollins and a symphony orchestra performing Rollins’ Concerto for Tenor Saxophone. While I wouldn’t exactly call the piece “third stream”, it does have some very interesting elements, at least in the snippets included in the documentary, and some of the string writing (orchestrated by Heikki Saramanto, who is in the documentary) is incredibly inventive.

Interestingly, as Mugge mentions in the “making of” interview included on this Blu-ray as a supplement, Rollins and his wife (and manager) Lucille seemed to be intent on fighting back some of the then prevalent opinion that Rollins had somehow lost the edge he had shown in some of his classic albums of the fifties. It’s instructive again to see how Mugge doesn’t really give much time to any spoken screeds to back up the Rollins’ argument that Sonny was at least as vital as he had ever been, choosing instead to just let the man play his music, which is more than testament enough as to his energy and musical brilliance.

Saxophone Colossus Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Saxophone Colossus featuring Sonny Rollins is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of MVD Visual with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.38:1. Sourced from a new 4K transfer (one presumes of the negative, though I haven't seen any authoritative data to support that), this has the same gritty, small format appearance of many other Mugge documentaries. Clarity can be a bit variable, especially in some of the Tokyo stage setups, where Mugge was hampered by having only two cameras. The palette is quite appealing, however, featuring very robust accountings of Rollins' signature red clothing. In close-ups, detail is good. There are still some minor blemishes that accrue from time to time, including some vertical blue scratches that occur during the Concerto footage (see screenshot 10).

Saxophone Colossus Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Saxophone Colossus featuring Sonny Rollins features a nice sounding LPCM 2.0 track that capably handles the sometimes fierce musical elements as well as the interstitial talking head sequences. Fidelity is fine across the board, offering distortion free accounts of Rollins' often punchy, growling playing, as well as the calmer sounds of the string orchestra accompanying the Concerto for Tenor Saxophone. The outdoor talking heads moments also have some clear sounding ambient environmental effects creeping into the mix.

Saxophone Colossus Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Leaps and Bounds: Robert Mugge on Saxophone Colossus (1080p; 25:54) is presumably what the back cover of this release advertises as an "illustrated commentary", though it's simply a very informative interview with Mugge that is much the same as the one that's part of Gospel According to Al Green, and in fact kind of looks like it may have been shot at the same time as that one. (There are also some comments from others, including some of the jazz critics featured in the actual documentary.) Mugge has a lot of interesting tidbits to share, including the fact that the seeming visual non sequiturs of Japanese people tooling about various urban environments during the playing of Rollins' Concerto for Saxophone was born of necessity, since Mugge was only able to bring two cameramen with him to Japan, and therefore had limited opportunities to "cover" the actual concert performance.


• Bonus Audio #1: G Man (15:22)


• Bonus Audio #2: Don't Stop the Carnival (11:20)

Saxophone Colossus Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Saxophone Colossus featuring Sonny Rollins may not be particularly insightful in terms of the commentaries offered by critics and in fact Rollins and (briefly) his wife, but the music — well, that's another story entirely, and undoubtedly the chief reason jazz lovers should check out this piece. This may not have the same "narrative" thrust that some other Mugge documentaries do, but just listening to Rollins blow may be more than enough for some fans. Technical merits are generally strong, and Saxophone Colossus featuring Sonny Rollins comes Recommended.