Shutterbug Friday #4:
Francis Wolff and the Empire of Cool (Vol. 1)
In his years as an executive at Blue Note records, Francis Wolff repeatedly called upon his earlier training as a Photographer to document a veritable pantheon of American musical wizardry. Here, in the first of three installments, is a sampling of that fearsome chronicle:
Grant Green
Freddie Hubbard
Milt Jackson
Wild Bill Davison
Larry Young
Horace Silver
Don Cherry
Jackie McLean
Kid Howard and George Lewis
Herbie Hancock
Max Roach
Wardell Gray
Shirley Scott
Art Blakey
Gigi Gryce
Cecil Taylor
Philly Joe Jones
Clifford Brown
Ray Conniff and Max Kaminsky
Elvin Jones
Wayne Shorter
Sonny Clark
Shafi Hadi
Tadd Dameron
Sonny Rollins
for the series:
Shutterbug Friday
17 comments so far:
Pure awesomeness!
the shot of elvin jones fits perfectly with the mental image i've developed of him from listening to 'a love supreme' a million times.
and don cherry's cheeks!
i look forward to the friday series every week
Thank you very much, Mr Sutpen.
"Empire of Cool", indeed.
Elvin Jones: Art Blakey strikes a similar pose on the cover of "The Freedom Rider" LP.
danke für die wunderwunderbare Fotostrecke,in der der sich Hingabe,Horace Silver,u. Sonny Clark,und die Froehlichkeit eines Art Blakey,ebenso die Ernsthaftigkeit des Cecil Taylor,so wie P.J.Jones im Rausch des Rhythmus`vereinen,merci.
Every shot seems to capture the essence of each performer. Max Roach looks too cool for words. Art Blakey looks like he's having an awesome time. Herbie Hancock looks...confused?
Absolutely stunning shots!
Absolutely spectacular photos.
My favorite contributor to the Blue Note legend, however, will always be the incomparable REID MILES.
Philly Joe looks like he's on the nod. Fantastic post.
oh wow. Fred is so right - the music is in these pictures.
Wolff was a much more dramatic jazz photographer than William Claxton, in my opinion. Amazing shots.
I can go 'long with that.
By the by, I just came from your blog (which I'd not read before). Beautiful stuff, Signor!
Hey, AG... FZ coulda showed them all some stuff's.
Horace!
great photos. the image of elvin jones really resonates because the first jazz concert i attended was his trio at rutgers back in the day. man i miss him!
Hot diggety damn. Another stellar moment on this excellent site.
These are amazing! Is there any way I could get a larger resolution of the Max Roach one, to use as a desktop background?
A lot of these photos are available from Mosaic Records (www.mosaicrecords.com). And there've been a few books of these Wolff Blue Note photos. Great stuff.
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