Sam Harrelson

Anna and I just returned from our Seattle trip and I’ll post lots about that soon.  In the meantime, here’s a great post from CosmicVariance…

This famous 1958 photo by Art Kane, A Great Day in Harlem,
brought together 57 jazz musicians for a group portrait. Luminaries
range from Count Basie and Coleman Hawkins to Charles Mingus and Dizzie
Gillespie and Sonny Rollins. Norbizness points to a helpful web page: harlem.org, which provides a clickable version of the photo! Point to any musician, and it will tell you who they are and provide a brief biography.

Years ago I saw a documentary by Jean Bach about the making of the portrait, which included many interviews with the surviving musicians (now available on DVD). My favorite part was seeing Thelonious Monk
get ready for the shoot. You see him strategizing about how to stand
out among all the other luminaries. First he decides to wear black, to
look cool. Then he figures that everyone else will be wearing black, so
he’s going to wear white. (As it turns out, everyone else had the same
thought, so there’s a lot of white jackets in the photo.) Finally he
realizes that the best thing to do will be to grab a spot next to the
ladies, where everyone will be looking first. And lo and behold there
he is, next to fellow pianists Mary Lou Williams and Marian McPartland (still going strong as host of NPR’s Piano Jazz). Monk needn’t have worried; he didn’t have any trouble standing out.

Link to Full Post

Share This