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Filmed & Directed by Randy Cole
Al McLean - Narration & Saxophones
Filmed on April 8, 2011 in Montreal

In this installment of Jazz, Period. Montreal Jazz saxophonist Al McLean takes up a trio of vintage Selmer saxophones in a haunting, impromptu performance. McLean reflects on the rumor and mystique surrounding the celebrated instrument, and shares its compelling story. The film culminates in an unplanned duet.

Manufactured in the heyday of Jazz, the Selmer Mark VI is arguably the finest and most loved woodwind ever made. The 'Stradivarius' of saxes, it represent the perfect overlap between old-world craftsmanship and modern design.

Beyond the tangible, however, the Mark VI strikes an even deeper emotional chord, with romantic notions still swirling unabated about it. Played by legendary Jazz artists - Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Stan Getz - the origin of this horn is still a topic of hot debate.

Some say the French brass of the Mark VI is made from high grade armament casings, recuperated after WWII. Some of those casings, in turn, would have been made from the over 9,000 Church bells confiscated and smelted by the Nazi Wirtschaftsministerium (Ministry of Economics) during the war, to feed Germany's drive for armament production.

Thus, we have the enchanting allure of church bells' improbable legacy living on within a celebrated Jazz saxophone; a mournful, yet soulful metaphor of destruction and rebirth, which somehow seems to echo the experience of Jazz's progenitors.

Can we hear the peal of church bells in a cascading Al McLean solo? Listen closely, and you can decide.

Click here for a relevant article from the Canadian Journal of History, 2008:
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