As Jackie McLean has become one of my favorite musicians as of late, I surfed the internet looking for information about the saxophonist when I stumbled into Youtube and watched “Jackie McLean on Mars”. A documentary by Ken Levis, the film recaps the musician’s career as he was teaching at the University of Hartford in the 70s.

A short 32-minute watch, Levis does a good job reviewing McLean’s career briefly, but what is outstanding are the statements Levis managed to capture on screen, and the most memorable anecdotes of the film include the honesty and frustration that McLean experienced at the time. The film begins with Levis asking McLean how it feels to be a legend, in which the saxophonist replies “I feel like an exploited, poor musician in 1976, if you want to know how I feel…” which pretty much sets the tone for the film.

McLean seemed frustrated with the conditions he has experienced growing up in Harlem and experiencing a drug epidemic in his neighborhood, racism, as well as the lack of appreciation that jazz musicians experience in America’s music industry. “Donald Byrd is wearin’ big buttons and all of that because he has to in order to be in with the cats and to be in that whole thing he is perpetuating in commercialism. He’s not smiling because he’s happy, because he’s not… he can’t be.” he frustratingly describes the exploitation of musicians in mainstream America to a seemingly skeptical class.

All of his frustration as a musician and his desire to have jazz musicians be appreciated in America are summed up in the last moments of the films where he describes an encounter at a France immigration where the person stamping his passport recognized his name saying “ah, jazz musicien, artiste” – and ending the documentary poignantly with “You gotta have somebody sometime tell you that you’re an artist, you gotta have somebody recognize the fact you’re in an exclusive artform, that it’s something special.”

The documentary is quite special, capturing a legendary musician who is passionately outspoken with his opinions. Definitely watch if you have the time.