On June 24 2005 the Dutch current affairs programme Netwerk, made by the KROTV company, had a feature on Benny Bailey. The producer was Marianne van Genabeth and the director was Breghitta Nuyten.

Breghitta Nuyten was kind enough to write an English version of her original text for the family, and foreign friends. This has been provided to ITG News though the good offices of Breghitta herself; Benny's friend and colleague, trombonist Erik van Lier; and ITG Euronews correspondent Emile Meuffels.

Dialogue is transcribed as it was said. Apart from that, text in italics is Breghitta Nuyten on the soundtrack, and the other text [in square brackets] is comments from Erik van Lier.

[The first music that you hear is Benny playing: I'm glad that there is you, recorded by the Francy Boland-Kenny Clarke big band on the album All Smiles (May 13/14 1968).]

Lady next door: "He was very much on his own"

Breghitta: "Did you … "

Lady next door: "We had contact … and that contact was, good morning, good afternoon, and how are you doing?

A world citizen died in number 27, Spitsbergen Street. On 14th April at three minutes to five in the afternoon the Amsterdam police received a phone call from England. The request was if they could have a look at the apartment. The police break the door in and find a deceased man.

Lady next door: "Subsequently I found that awful and that's because you didn't share much more than good morning, good afternoon … and than he took off in a taxi, and was away for a couple of days or a week and than a couple of days at home … you didn't realize that this could happen. Afterwards I found it awful that this man had already been lying for a couple of days like this in his home".

[You hear Benny playing: It don't mean a thing, with Boy Edgar's big band (Johnny and I also played in that big band as well as Slide Hampton who was living in Holland at that time). The concert was in Rotterdam (1969) and at the same evening Benny and myself also played with the Clarke-Boland big band and the third band at this "battle of the bands" was the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis big band.]

Here, in the ordinary apartment, they found the body of Benny Bailey. He is an American, 79 years old and a jazz legend. He played with all the big ones, with Miles, Dizzy, Sarah Vaughan. They were colleagues and friends, but nobody knew that on 14th April.

Drummer Johnny Engels: "Make no mistake. All the great Americans knew about Benny Bailey".

Saxophonist Ferdinand Povel: "A remarkable quality was that he was one of the first who could play lead trumpet (first trumpet in a big band) and be a real jazz soloist at the same time. That is unique".

Social services cannot locate any family and is preparing a funeral. On the 29th they publish one last ad in an attempt to find anybody who knew the man from number 27.

Bassist Renee van Beek: "And there was no further information. Also Ernst was not completely right (it should be Ernest) and no date of birth, and then I started making phone calls right away and found out that is was about Benny Bailey.

Who was Benny Bailey? How can someone who is that famous in the world of jazz lie dead in his home for days? Why did he live in Amsterdam and what made him so unique? We ask friends from the jazz scene.

[Fragment of me rehearsing one of the two big bands of the Amsterdam Conservatory.]

Erik van Lier is a teacher at the Conservatory of Music and a trombone player. He played with Benny for years. They met each other in the sixties. Here they are touring with the Francy Boland-Kenny Clarke big band.

Bass trombonist Erik van Lier: "Yes, an exuberant personality, not a boring person ".

Bass player Renee van Beek – he played gigs with Bailey in the last couple of years.

[Renee performs Pennies from Heaven, which he also played with Benny.]

Ferdinand Povel, sax … They made records together and travelled for hours, driving to performances.

Breghitta: "That identifies him?"

Ferdinand nods.

And drummer John Engels, friend and colleague. Here he plays with Benny at the last evening of the (old) Bim House (November 30 2004)

These are the last pictures of Benny Bailey.

Johnny: "Yes, I do miss him very much, as do many others"

A quiet man with a jazz soul. Bailey comes into the world on August 13, 1925 in Cleveland, Ohio. His father plays the sax, his mother the piano. Benny chooses trumpet. After his studies, a great career in America awaits. These are the years that shape jazz. Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones, Charlie "Bird" Parker, Lionel Hampton, Benny Bailey: they are all part of the same scene.

Ferdinand: "He and Art Farmer, who were buddies, visited Miles Davis when he was still living with his parents, and he played with Charlie Parker, you name it … yes, sometimes you hear something."

Renee: "Benny Bailey … when I wanted to write a little story for a performance about all the people that he played with, he said: ‘Write anything, it doesn't make any difference, I played with everybody.' And if you checked it you'd find that his statement was actually right."

Quincy Jones, who later became famous as the producer of Michael Jackson's Thriller, even writes a number for the trumpet player: Meet Benny Bailey, originally for big band but later covered by The Manhattan Transfer. And for Bailey's funeral Quincy sends an email:

"Benny was one of the most impressive people that I've ever met. He stood there right at the top with Dizzy … I'm going to miss my man, Benny."

Johnny: "I sometimes said to Benny … ah, Benny, you should write a book about all the things that you experienced, because this man took part in so many things … For me he was actually the jazz-bible".

Bailey comes to Europe in the fifties and the sixties while touring. He stays here. He lives in Sweden and Switzerland and finally settles down in Amsterdam. There is a lot of work in Europe and the social climate is here better for jazz musicians in those days, than in America.

Ferdinand: "I think Benny was kind of a world citizen. He settled everywhere and felt at home right away. It was more kind of a base. He actually liked Holland, but I don't think his most important activities took place here. He was everywhere … he had also families everywhere … in Sweden and in Germany … and he also spoke those languages".

[Benny in the Bim House.]

Friends and colleagues say that Bailey was warm and generous, but also that he was kind of a loner … he seldom invited anybody in.

Erik: "In one way he was a strong personality, and that you could hear in his music, it is very outspoken, but yet on the other hand he was very modest and consequently, always serving the music. One time he had to give a clinic at the Hilversum Conservatory and previously we went to an Italian restaurant and then he was deliberating for a long time whether he would , or would not, drink a glass of red wine with the meal. I said … Well Benny … one glass of wine, that should be possible … he says … Do you think so? … Yes, I replied … one little glass, that should be alright. This again is typical. He felt like having a bit of wine but yet he was thinking … Is it good for my playing? Should I do it or not? Well … he didn't do it!"

John: But the joy of playing, that has nothing to do with time … that is timeless, time disappears and that has nothing to do if you are seventy or two hundred … or seventeen or eighteen. It has to do with your mind. Benny had a young mind also … A playful cat … but yet a fantastic cat.

Breghitta: "Do you miss the music?"

Lady next door: "Well I'm not gonna answer right away with yes. When it sounded … especially when we returned home in the evening after being out, my husband would say on the stairs … Hey … he is home again and playing again. And … the first days, when it was all over and I climbed up the stairs I still had a moment when I thought … Hey … he cannot leave his house … strange.

Renee: "Afterwards you start thinking … gee, and also people say … gee, maybe he was lonely … but yet, he never gave me that impression.

Breghitta: It is a bit of an inglorious ending then, in Spitsbergen Street in Amsterdam, in a small apartment of the "de Key" housing corporation. One could almost say: that ain't much jazz.

Erik: "You could say inglorious but … what does glory mean? … is that what it is all about? So on a certain moment one can say … music is actually kind of a language and with that language you can communicate with people and that, he did fantastically … and so, when you move people with your music you achieve something … and maybe that is not glory but yet it's very special."

[A fragment of Boy's big band, then the Clarke –Boland big band followed by the Ferdinand Povel Quintet at the Loosdrecht Jazz Festival (August 8 1972). Tony Inzalaco plays the drums.]

Exactly when Benny died is not known. He had lain dead in his home for somewhere between one and ten days. The funeral was planned for 3rd May. If anybody had taken the time to search for his name on the internet they would have found dozens of sites and it would have been possible to find the family. But social services say they didn't have that time.

Johnny: "It's a bloody shame … this man who was found … was it on the fourteenth? … and on the twenty-ninth you see in the papers that he passed away … that is not possible! We live in 2005, in Amsterdam … that's a true metropolis … and yet nothing really happened at all.

Finally the ceremony was delayed and family and friends could attend the service. Two sisters came over from America. On 10th May they said goodbye to Benny Bailey.

Johnny: "We forgot one thing … I think that is one of the most important things … Benny was indeed an enormous personality … Benny Bailey played Benny Bailey … and that is the most important thing in music … that someone who plays is recognizable and has his own interpretation of music … And yes, that was Benny …

[The last image shows pianist Rob van Bavel who joins Johnny and Benny.]

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