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The Faces of Jazz
In the years between 1939 and 1948, William Gottlieb's cumbersome Speed Graphic press camera captured the elusive moments of what he called "a golden age" of jazz--the era of Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Mary Lou Williams, Eddie Condon, Charlie Parker, Nat King Cole. In shot after shot, he sought to expose the creative spirit behind the music: "I photographed Billie Holiday's face so that it suggested the anguish in her voice; I made sure to show the mutilation in guitarist Django Reinhardt's fingering hand, making it obvious how much he had to conquer to become the first great non-American jazz musician; I had Mel Tormé, the 'Velvet Fog,' sing through a cloud formed by dry ice."
Gottlieb was struck by the "tremendous energy" of the jazz greats he encountered. He recalls an evening in 1940 when the ebullient Duke Ellington visited him at home. Twenty years Gottlieb's senior, Ellington was "bouncing around" until 3 a.m. when he left with a "woman draped on either arm."
The young writer realized that illustrating his reviews with photographs of such famous performers would win readers. But when a thrifty editor at the Post declined to pay a staff photographer to shoot them, Gottlieb bought his own press camera, taught himself how to use it, and even supplied his own film and flashbulbs. "After committing a couple of horrendous double exposures, and even shooting without film in my camera, I mastered the beast and . . . became a competent writer-photographer," Gottlieb recently related. "I know the musicians and their music quite well and . . . could hold off making the exposure until the right instant."
[Portrait of Ray Nance, Aquarium, New York, N.Y., ca. Nov. 1946], William P. Gottlieb, photographer. (Music Division, LC-GLB23-0652)
[Pianist, composer, and arranger
Mary Lou Williams, New York,
N.Y., ca. 1946], William P. Gottlieb,
photographer. (Music Division,
LC-GLB13-0923)
[Nat King Cole at a friend's home,
New York, N.Y., ca. June 1947],
William P. Gottlieb, photographer.
(Music Division, LC-GLB23-0151)
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.natlib.ihas.200185530/default.html
50 great moments in jazz: How Miles Davis's second quintet changed jazz | Music | guardian.co.uk
It's hard to think of a more significant influence on the small jazz ensembles of the last four decadesthan Miles Davis's second quintet, formed in the mid 60s. Davis was reacting to John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman's pioneering work and absorbing their structure-loosening innovations into his own music – just as he had done on at least three occasions since he first fought his way into Charlie Parker's 1945 group by a mixture of guile, persistance and raw talent. Back then, the young Davis had changed bebop's nervous sound with softer tones and spacious solos – a development that informed the Birth of the Cool sessions, with more languorous bop lines folded into sumptuous ensemble harmonies. Then came Davis's rejection of established jazz chords with 1959's Kind of Blue, as well as collaborations with big-band composer/arranger Gil Evans that produced jazz concertos such as Porgy and Bess and Sketches of Spain.
But by the 60s, jazz was being shaken up by the fearless (some might say foolhardy, or even unlistenable) challenges of musicians such as Coltrane, Coleman and pianist Cecil Taylor. The exploratory artist in Davis drew him toward these liberating possibilities, but he needed the attention of a broader audience. His reaction to free jazz was to reinvent his quintet with untried talents to see what would happen. Davis hired 16-year-old drum prodigy Tony Williams, fast-rising pianist Herbie Hancock (whose jazz-improv and pop instincts appealed to Davis), plus the Coltrane-esque Wayne Shorter on sax and bass powerhouse Ron Carter.
The band quickly became Davis's finest group. Their solos were fresh and original, and their individual styles fused with a spontaneous fluency that was simply astonishing. The quintet's method came to be dubbed "time, no changes" because of their emphasis on strong rhythmic grooves without the dictatorial patterns of song-form chords. At times they veered close to free-improvisation, but the pieces were as thrilling and hypnotically sensuous as anything the band's open-minded leader had recorded before.
