You drink a shot of whiskey every time someone describes Darryl Jones as “In the pocket,” you’ll be flat on your face within the first 20 minutes. And yet, coming from the cats in Darryl Jones: In the Blood, it’s the ultimate compliment. Jones’s story of a young black man from Chicago rising to become one of the most sought after bassists in the world is exactly the kind of doc I love, in spite of its structural flaws.
Since 1994, Jones has been the bassist for a little combo called The Rolling Stones! It’s always gonna be cool to hear sound bites from one-on-one interviews with Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, and Charlie Watts, and director Eric Hamburg frontloads the doc with the boys in the band. They are loose and fun, Richard’s with his trademark laugh that sounds like it’s coming from the bottom of a tar filled barrel is great to watch.
But Charlie Watts matters most (may be rest in peace) as he was the drummer – the one who needed to vibe with and lock in with whatever bassist might come in to replace Bill Wyman, who left in 1963 after 30 years. Watts, in interviews before his death, heaps praise upon Jones, who, he learned, had played with Miles Davis for five years.
What? I Never Knew That!
It must be said that Hamburg got the goods, but the first act is so choppily edited that you wonder whether his few seconds of stage footage randomly interspersed every so often was done to save money on rights to the performance footage. The cuts are jarring- not even the sound is faded between edits. And he can’t resist using every second of his interviews, and so we cut back time and again for them only to repeat themselves.
For me, the interesting part of the film was the whole Miles Davis thing. The story of how Jones ended up in Davis’s band at the age of 21 is a great tale which Jones tells himself. Now we’re getting somewhere!
There are also visits to Jones’s old haunts, through which he guides us on brief tours through his childhood days.
The first time I remember seeing Jones was back in 1985, when this Sting video was playing non-stop on MTV. Jones actually made Sting cooler than he already is by just being in his band.
Jones also played with Madonna, which we hear a bit about, and it’s nice to hear from the great Don Was, the producer who knows what he’s talking about when he talks about recording and musicians. He is a key part of the doc.
As Darryl Jones branches out into more solo work, this doc is a way of introducing himself to a larger audience, perhaps. But in the end, I know a lot more about Jones as a musician, which is great, but just a little bit more about Jones as a person. He’s definitely got a lot of friends, though. There is something to be inferred from that fact, I suppose.
It could’ve been built a lot better, and Hamburg has made some really good films. This one depends on the curiosity and good will of huge music nerds like me – I hope it does well for all involved.
Darryl Jones: In The Blood is in theaters and on Amazon and Apple TV
