KID DYNAMITE

Script / director : Hans Hylkema
Camera : Deen van der Zaken
Sound : Ben van den Dungen
Editor : Ot Louw
Sound editor : Harold Jalving
Production : Lies Janssen / Cindy Kerseborn
Line producer : Hetty Krapels
Producer : Pieter van Huystee
Commissioning editor : Cees van Ede / NPS
Premiere : IDFA 2001

Arthur Parisius is the real name of the legendary tenor saxophonist, who acquired the stage name 'Kid Dynamite' due to his explosive performances. Kid was born in Surinam in 1911 and emigrated to the Netherlands in the late twenties of the last century. During the thirties he developed into a versatile musician with a great passion for jazz music. In addition he was blessed with a good singing voice and was an excellent percussionist. He became the first prominent Afro-Surinam tenor saxophonist, who was respected by many colleague-musicians. When the great Coleman Hawkins heard him play for the first time, he said "tell the people, this guy is alright". Later they would make music together and Kid considered Hawkins to be his musical father.

After the war he became a renowned musician in the club Casablanca in Amsterdam, where the crowds queued up to hear him play. In those days his performance was sometimes compared to that of Sonny Rollins. Yet when Dynamite died in a car accident in Germany in 1963, he had practically been forgotten due to the rise of pop music. In the early eighties he was rediscovered by several jazz lovers and by a new generation of Surinam musicians in the Netherlands.

The film was shot in Surinam and the Netherlands and tells the life story of Kid Dynamite, father of the Afro-Surinam jazz, using testimonies of people who knew him or played with him and archive photographs and films. In the course of this, the only existing moving images of Kid Dynamite playing, have been dug up. In Kid Dynamite's compositions, for which he personally wrote the lyrics, one can hear how powerfully his music is influenced by his Surinam roots: the rhythms and lyrics are imbued with the mystical winti religion. Winti also plays an important role in the secret that he carried with him all his life and that developed into a musician's myth at the end of his life. The serpent, as a carrier of spirits, plays an important part in the myth. Significantly, we hear Kid Dynamite announce one of his own pieces of music in the film using the following words: "The winti-dansi is a dance that is performed near a large fire and during which the serpent is honoured". In the film, the secret of the serpent, that he was so intrigued by, is divulged and unique images are shown of an authentic winti gathering, during which people go into a trance.

In the film his music can be heard again, not only by means of authentic old recordings that have survived but also performed by young Surinam musicians conducted by composer and bass player Vincent Henar, leader of the prominent Afro-Surinam jazz ensemble Fra-Fra Sound. Kid Dynamite's 'musical voice' on the tenor saxophone is expressed by the saxophonist and flute player Wilgo Telting who lives in Paramaribo. His Surinam band 'Time Out' has scored success for years now in the Caribbean and can be seen and heard every week at sessions in the club 'Rumours' in the Surinam capital.


PIETER VAN HUYSTEE FILM
Keizersgracht 784, 1017 EC Amsterdam 020-4210606, fax 020-6386255
www.bigpete.com