1958 art kane jazz photo

1958 art kane jazz photo, When I found out there was going to be this big meeting for a picture in Esquire," Dizzy Gillespie recalled, "I said to myself, 'Here's my chance to see all these musicians without going to a funeral.'" The mood was indeed far from funereal on that warm Tuesday morn of August 12, 1958, when nearly five dozen jazz artists overflowed the staircase of a Harlem brownstone for an unprecedented group portrait. The "big meeting" was the brainstorm of rookie photographer Art Kane (1925-1995), and proved surprisingly convivial for creatures of the night unused to a 10 a.m. gig. ("A musician at the shoot," wrote The New Yorker's Whitney Balliett, "said he was astonished to discover that there were two 10 o'clocks in each day.")

Naturally it took a while for the 55 cats and 3 chicks to arrive and exchange greetings, and it's unclear when everyone was finally in place. For that matter, nobody has the vaguest idea how so many rugged individualists wound up exactly where they did, since no one was directed where to stand. Any groupings, such as drummers in proximity or vocalists next to each other, were entirely fortuitous. Even the headcount was subject to last-minute revision, as shown by the gap in the second row (at left) behind singer Maxine Sullivan, which had lately been vacated by Harlem stride pianist Willie "The Lion" Smith. Just in time for the shutter's snap, The Lion tired of standing and, stepping out of frame, seated himself on a nearby stoop, reducing posterity's take from 58 to 57.

The only thing certain is that this assemblage encompassed many of the most luminous stars in the jazz firmament, preserved by the camera at an extraordinary moment in time. Fifty years later, Jazz.com salutes the golden anniversary of what Holly Anderson describes on the official Art Kane web site as "The greatest photograph in the history of jazz." With justifiable pride, she adds: "Not bad for a beginner." (By the way, when visiting Kane's web site, check out the interactive Harlem 1958, which lets you zoom in on the picture and identify each artist by name.)

The subjects caught in Kane's lens spanned the stylistic gamut from New Orleans to Chicago to Swing to Bebop to Modern. The oldest, Harlem stride pianist Luckey Roberts, was 71. The youngest, Sonny Rollins, was 27. Yet the concept of cliques was alien to all. Rollins, for example, viewed his onsite elders Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young as personal heroes, direct inspiration for his own calling as a musician.

Moreover, most of these 57 had performed together in various collegial combinations over the years, and in particular during the preceding eight months in two of the highest-profile jazz showcases ever. First came The Sound of Jazz, nationally telecast live by CBS-TV the previous December, featuring 16 of Kane's 57 varieties: