A Great Day in Harlem

Last updated

A Great Day in Harlem Great Day in Harlem.jpg
A Great Day in Harlem

A Great Day in Harlem or Harlem 1958 is a black-and-white photograph of 57 jazz musicians in Harlem, New York, taken by freelance photographer Art Kane for Esquire magazine on August 12, 1958. [1] The idea for the photo came from Esquire's art director, Robert Benton, rather than Kane. [2] However, after being given the commission, it seems the latter was responsible for choosing the location for the shoot. [3] The subjects are shown at 17 East 126th Street, [lower-alpha 1] between Fifth and Madison Avenue, where police had temporarily blocked off traffic. Published as the centerfold of the January 1959 ("Golden Age of Jazz") issue of Esquire, [4] the image was captured with a Hasselblad camera, and earned Kane his first Art Directors Club of New York gold medal for photography. [3] [5] It has been called "the most iconic photograph in jazz history". [6]

Contents

The scene portrayed is something of an anachronism, as by 1957 Harlem was no longer the "hotbed" of jazz it had been in the 1940s, and had "forfeited its place in sun" to 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan. [7] Many musicians who were formerly resident in the area had already moved to middle-class parts of New York, or did so shortly thereafter. [8] Kane himself was not that certain who would turn up on the day, as Esquire staff had merely issued a general invitation through the local musicians' union, recording studios, music writers, and nightclub owners. [9]

In 2018, a book was published to mark the 60th anniversary of the event, with forewords by Quincy Jones and Benny Golson, [lower-alpha 2] and an introduction by Kane's son, Jonathan. [11]

Musicians in the photograph

Children in the picture

Count Basie, having grown tired of standing, sat down on the curb, and gradually a dozen children followed. [13] Most of the children were neighborhood residents, although the second child from the right, Taft Jordan Jr., had accompanied his father, Taft Jordan, to the photo session. [13] The photography crew was already having trouble directing the adults, and the presence of the children added to the chaos: one of the children appearing in the window kept yelling at a sibling on the curb; another kept playing with Basie's hat; Taft Jordan Jr. had been scuffling with the older child seated to his left. [13] Ultimately, Art Kane realized that any further attempt to organize the proceedings would be futile, and he decided to incorporate the subjects' actions. [13]

Musicians not in the main photograph

Notable absentees were Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, and Miles Davis (all touring), Duke Ellington (in Milwaukee), Benny Goodman (in Los Angeles), and Ella Fitzgerald (recording in Chicago). Ruby Braff, Billie Holiday, and Ben Webster were also not present. [10]

Willie "The Lion" Smith had sat down to rest on a nearby stoop when the photo chosen for publication was taken, but appears in unused frames. [14] [15]

Ronnie Free, Mose Allison and Charlie Rouse arrived too late to participate in the Esquire shoot, but they were photographed by Dizzy Gillespie alongside Mary Lou Williams, Lester Young and Oscar Pettiford. [16] [17]

Film

Jean Bach, a radio producer of New York, recounted the story behind the photograph in her 1994 documentary film, A Great Day in Harlem . This incorporated 8 mm film footage taken by bassist Milt Hinton on the day of the shoot. [2] The film was nominated in 1995 for an Academy Award for Documentary Feature. Bach described how, upon the film's release, a number of similar photographs employed the "A Great Day in..." theme. [18] Hugh Hefner assembled Hollywood-area musicians for "A Great Day in Hollywood" in conjunction with a sneak preview of A Great Day in Harlem. [18] Soon afterwards, "A Great Day in Philadelphia" included musicians such as Jimmy Heath, Benny Golson and Ray Bryant. [18] During the filming of Kansas City (1996), musicians including Jay McShann posed for "A Great Day in Kansas City". [18] A multi-page supplement in The Star-Ledger featured "A Great Day in Jersey", while a Dutch photograph was titled "A Great Day in Haarlem". [18] In 1998, "Great Day in St Paul" was taken by Byron Nelson. [19]

The trend spread to other styles of music, with Houston blues musicians posing for "A Great Day in Houston". [18] "A Great Day in Hip Hop" was followed by XXL's "The Greatest Day in Hip Hop". [18] An Atlanta radio station gathered musicians for "A Great Day in Doo-Wop". [18] A New York cellist, inspired by both the original photograph and the film, assembled chamber musicians for "A Great Day in New York". [18] The New York Post ran "A Great Day in Spanish Harlem". [18]

The photograph was a key plot point in Steven Spielberg's 2004 film The Terminal . The film starred Tom Hanks as Viktor Navorski, a character who comes to the United States in search of Benny Golson's autograph, with which he can complete his deceased father's collection of autographs from the musicians pictured in the photo. Golson himself made a cameo appearance in the film. [20] [21] [22]

Homages

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Kane also used number 52 as a backdrop. [3]
  2. ↑ By this point, Golson and Sonny Rollins were the only surviving participants (excluding children). [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roy Eldridge</span> American jazz trumpeter (1911–1989)

David Roy Eldridge, nicknamed "Little Jazz", was an American jazz trumpeter. His sophisticated use of harmony, including the use of tritone substitutions, his virtuosic solos exhibiting a departure from the dominant style of jazz trumpet innovator Louis Armstrong, and his strong impact on Dizzy Gillespie mark him as one of the most influential musicians of the swing era and a precursor of bebop.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benny Golson</span> American jazz saxophonist and composer

Benny Golson is an American bebop/hard bop jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and arranger. He came to prominence with the big bands of Lionel Hampton and Dizzy Gillespie, more as a writer than a performer, before launching his solo career. Golson is known for co-founding and co-leading The Jazztet with trumpeter Art Farmer in 1959. From the late 1960s through the 1970s Golson was in demand as an arranger for film and television and thus was less active as a performer, but he and Farmer re-formed the Jazztet in 1982.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Art Farmer</span> American jazz trumpeter (1928–1999)

Arthur Stewart Farmer was an American jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player. He also played flumpet, a trumpet–flugelhorn combination especially designed for him. He and his identical twin brother, double bassist Addison Farmer, started playing professionally while at high school in Los Angeles. Art gained greater attention after the release of a recording of his composition "Farmer's Market" in 1952. He subsequently moved from Los Angeles to New York, where he performed and recorded with musicians such as Horace Silver, Sonny Rollins, and Gigi Gryce and became known principally as a bebop player.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Art Taylor</span> American drummer

Arthur S. Taylor Jr. was an American jazz drummer, who "helped define the sound of modern jazz drumming".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. C. Heard</span> American drummer

James Charles Heard was an American swing, bop, and blues drummer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Chalfant</span> American photographer and videographer

Henry Chalfant is an American photographer and videographer most notable for his work on graffiti, breakdance, and hip hop culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pierre Michelot</span> French jazz musician and arranger

Pierre Michelot was a French jazz double bass player and arranger.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Art Kane</span> Award-winning US fashion and music photographer

Art Kane was an American fashion and music photographer active from the 1950s through the early 1990s. He created many portraits of contemporary musicians, including Bob Dylan, Jefferson Airplane, Sonny and Cher, Aretha Franklin, Frank Zappa, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, the Rolling Stones, and The Who.

Victor Dickenson was an American jazz trombonist. His career began in the 1920s and continued through musical partnerships with Count Basie (1940–41), Sidney Bechet (1941), and Earl Hines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sahib Shihab</span> American jazz saxophonist and flautist (1925–1989)

Sahib Shihab was an American jazz and hard bop saxophonist and flautist. He variously worked with Luther Henderson, Thelonious Monk, Fletcher Henderson, Tadd Dameron, Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Clarke, John Coltrane and Quincy Jones among others.

Thomas Bryant was an American jazz double-bassist.

Daniel Bernard Bank was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and flautist. He is credited on some releases as Danny Banks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom McIntosh</span> Musical artist

Thomas S. "Tom" McIntosh was an American jazz trombonist, composer, arranger, and conductor.

<i>A Great Day in Harlem</i> (film) 1994 film

A Great Day in Harlem is a 1994 American documentary film directed by Jean Bach about the photograph of the same name. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Janette Beckman</span> British documentary photographer

Janette Beckman is a British documentary photographer who has worked in London, New York and Los Angeles. Beckman describes herself as a documentary photographer. While she produces a lot of work on location, she is also a studio portrait photographer. Her work has appeared on records for the major labels, and in magazines including Esquire,Rolling Stone,Glamour,Italian Vogue,The Times,Newsweek,Jalouse,Mojo and others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jazz of the City Atlanta portrait</span>

The Jazz of the City Atlanta is a historic, color portrait of over 100 jazz musicians surrounding then-Mayor Shirley Franklin created in the Atlanta City Hall Atrium. Similar to the iconic, black and white, jazz portrait A Great Day in Harlem taken by Art Kane in 1958 — THE JAZZ OF THE CITY ATLANTA 2007 photograph marked a great day in Atlanta jazz history and the 30th anniversary of the Atlanta Jazz Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Thomas (trumpeter)</span> American jazz musician

Joseph Lewis Thomas was an American swing jazz trumpeter, who was born in Webster Groves, Missouri, and died in New York City, New York.

Jean Bach was an American documentary film director, radio producer and jazz aficionado. Bach directed the 1994 documentary, A Great Day in Harlem, based on a 1958 photograph of the same name.

William John Crump was an American jazz musician, who played alto and tenor saxophone, clarinet, flute, and oboe. He is remembered today mainly as one of the 57 musicians pictured in Art Kane's 1958 photograph A Great Day in Harlem, which appeared in the January 1959 issue of Esquire magazine. At the time, Crump was playing in house bands at the Apollo Theater and Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, New York.

<i>A Great Day in Hip Hop</i> 1998 photograph by Gordon Parks

A Great Day in Hip Hop is a black-and-white photograph of over 200 hip hop artists and producers in Harlem, New York, taken by photographer Gordon Parks on September 29, 1998. It was commissioned by XXL magazine, as a homage to Art Kane's A Great Day in Harlem, photographed in 1958.

References

  1. ↑ "Marian McPartland – A Great Day in Harlem". Clarehansson.com. Archived from the original on April 24, 2012. Retrieved April 12, 2012.
  2. 1 2 Levenson, Jeff (February 11, 1995). "Film Tells Story Behind Photo Of That 'Great Day In Harlem'" (PDF). Billboard . New York. p. 46. Retrieved January 4, 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 Myers, Marc (November 2, 2018). "A Great Day in Harlem, Revisited". Wall Street Journal . New York. Retrieved December 30, 2022.
  4. ↑ Kane, Art (January 1, 1959). "A Great Day in Harlem". Esquire . New York City. pp. 98–99. Retrieved December 1, 2023.
  5. ↑ Poppy, John (1975). Art Kane, The Persuasive Image: How a Portraitist and Story Teller Illuminates Our Changing Culture . Masters of Contemporary Photography. Los Angeles: Alskog / Thomas Y. Crowell Company. pp. 40–41. ISBN   0690007841. OCLC   1150967383 . Retrieved December 30, 2022– via Internet Archive.
  6. ↑ Scott, Ron (August 19, 2021). "Donald Harrison, Banana Pudding, Art Kane Place". New York Amsterdam News . Vol. 122, no. 33. p. 21.
  7. ↑ Reich, Howard (May 7, 1995). "On the Count of Three, Say 'Jazz': One Day in Harlem in 1958, a Photographer and His Subjects Made Beautiful Music Together" . Chicago Tribune. ProQuest   283968809 . Retrieved January 10, 2023– via ProQuest.
  8. ↑ Gill, Jonathan (2011). Harlem: The Four Hundred Year History from Dutch Village to Capital of Black America . New York: Grove Press. p. 363. ISBN   9780802119100. OCLC   881685845 . Retrieved December 30, 2022– via Internet Archive.
  9. ↑ Orgill, Roxane (2016). Jazz Day: The Making of a Famous Photograph . Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press. ISBN   9780763669546. OCLC   1302075202 – via Internet Archive.
  10. 1 2 John, McDonough (2018). "Herding Cats: Harlem 1958" (PDF). DownBeat . Vol. 85, no. 12. Elmhurst, IL: Maher Publications. p. 93. ISSN   0012-5768 . Retrieved January 4, 2023.
  11. ↑ Art Kane. Harlem 1958: The 60th Anniversary Edition (Trade ed.). New York: Wall of Sound Editions. 2018. ISBN   9788894366624.
  12. ↑ Allmusic Bill Crump biography
  13. 1 2 3 4 Bach, Jean (2005) [1994]. A Great Day in Harlem (DVD). Event occurs at 34:55.
  14. ↑ @RollinsBridge (August 12, 2018). "A 58th musician not in the final photo, Willie 'The Lion' Smith (b. 1897), got tired of standing and left the group to sit on the stoop next door..." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  15. ↑ ""A Great Day in Harlem: The Story Behind the Iconic Jazz Photo". Witness History. June 13, 2023. BBC. BBC World Service . Retrieved June 13, 2023.
  16. ↑ "the latecomers". A Great Day in Harlem.
  17. ↑ @RollinsBridge (August 12, 2018). "Three more musicians - Ronny Free, Mose Allison, and Charlie Rouse - arrived too late to get in the photo; Dizzy Gillespie later took a photo of the latecomers with Lester Young, Mary Lou Williams, and Oscar Pettiford..." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  18. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Jean Bach, Susan Peehl, and Matthew Seig (2005) [1994]. "The Copycat Photos". A Great Day in Harlem (DVD). Image Entertainment.
  19. ↑ Canter, Andrea, "Attention All Twin Cities Jazz Artists! “Great Day in St Paul” Photo Shoot May 22!", Jazz Police, May 9, 2016.
  20. ↑ Bream, Joe (April 22, 2019). "At 90, jazz great Benny Golson returns to Minnesota: 'I feel maybe 45 or 50'". Star Tribune . Minneapolis. Retrieved December 30, 2022.
  21. ↑ Lorne Graham, "A Great Day in Harlem/The Terminal", NEMC article.
  22. ↑ "The Terminal - Jazz Scenes - Benny Golson and A Great Day in Harlem", YouTube
  23. ↑ Michael A. Gonzales, "XXL's A Great Day in Hip Hop: 16 Years Later", Red Bull Music Academy Daily, September 29, 2014.
  24. ↑ Sarah Goodyear, "Stoop Summit — How a Harlem brownstone was immortalized when the living legends of jazz assembled there for an iconic photograph" Archived August 12, 2018, at the Wayback Machine , New York Daily News , August 12, 2016.
  25. ↑ Levy, Andrea (September 18, 2004). "Made in Britain: To celebrate the impact of their different perspectives, 50 writers of Caribbean, Asian and African descent gathered to be photographed. Andrea Levy reports on a great day for literature". The Guardian . London.
  26. ↑ Le Gendre, Kevin (October 17, 2004). "A great day for a family get together". The Independent on Sunday . London. Archived from the original on June 17, 2018.
  27. ↑ Reid, Shaheem (November 21, 2005). "A Great Day In Atlanta: T.I., Jeezy, Ludacris, Others Gather For Historic Shoot". MTV News . Archived from the original on June 20, 2024. Retrieved July 19, 2024.
  28. ↑ "A Great Day in Atlanta" (2005) (Video). September 25, 2015. Retrieved July 19, 2024.
  29. ↑ "Great Day on Eldridge Street" The Forward , 17 October 2007
  30. ↑ "A Great Day in Paris - Trailer" on YouTube
  31. ↑ Perez, Mathieu, "Ricky Ford: Five or Six Shades of Jazz" (interview), Jazz Hot #668, Summer 2014.
  32. ↑ Rayner, Alex (March 14, 2018). "Gentrification's ground zero: the rise and fall of Hoxton Square". The Guardian. Retrieved May 17, 2023.
  33. ↑ "NEWS: "Great Day in Hackney" Photo taken to celebrate 30 Years of Premises Studios" Archived July 17, 2018, at the Wayback Machine , London Jazz News, October 18, 2016.
  34. ↑ Littleton, Cynthia (June 25, 2018). "Netflix Unveils 'Great Day in Hollywood' Image Spot Highlighting Black Creators". Variety.
  35. ↑ "A Great Day in Hollywood | Netflix". YouTube . June 24, 2018.

40°48′25″N73°56′27″W / 40.80694°N 73.94083°W / 40.80694; -73.94083

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.