Out There: David S. Ware Documentary Short (In Memoriam David Lynch)
Notable jazz resources online and elsewhere.
David Lynch died on January 16, 2025. Casting the director and artist as a fellow traveler of the jazz avant-garde would be a stretch. Not much in his extensive body of work points in that direction. One thing Lynch was, however, was an advocate of transcendental meditation, as were quite a few artists of the free jazz generation. This was the avenue through which Lynch’s Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace distributed a short documentary about saxophonist David S. Ware, a meditation practitioner since the 1970s. Bandmates William Parker, Cooper-Moore, and Muhammad Ali make brief appearances, but the 2011 film is centered on close shots of Ware talking and playing. "A lot of people don’t listen with the third ear, they only listen on the surface," the saxophonist states at one point. "They say, 'Well, the music is angry… It’s madness… It’s chaotic.' It’s really none of that, it’s something else happening that you have to be able to hear. It’s very subtle, it’s inside the music, it’s a voice, it’s talking." Strangely, since his aesthetics had little in common with Ware’s, the quote could have applied to Lynch. For many his work was mad and chaotic, but something else was happening inside. A voice talking. Gracefully.
A World of Sound is a great short film by Amine Kouider; just over 13 minutes long, it is loaded with insight on David S. Ware; beautifully captured and edited. Indeed, David Lynch's support of it, via his Foundation, which was devoted to spreading the word on the benefits of transcendental meditation, was very enthusiastic during its creation, and on its completion. Big props and respect to both him & Kouider. So great that this was made, and completed just a year before Ware's own passing.