Jazz History - A Great Day In Harlem

A Great Day in Harlem 1958 is a black-and-white group portrait of 57 notable jazz musicians photographed in front of a brownstone in Harlem, New York City.
The photo has remained an important object in the study of the history of jazz.

Art Kane, a freelance photographer working for Esquire magazine, took the picture around 10 a.m. on August 12 in the summer of 1958.
The musicians had gathered at 17 East 126th Street, between Fifth and Madison Avenues in Harlem. Esquire published the photo in its January 1959 issue.
Kane calls it "the greatest picture of that era of musicians ever taken."
One if the biggest achievements was of course getting a Jazz man out of bed to attend a 10 a.m. photo shoot!, well documented in the film of the photo.

The fascinating documentary film on the pictures' story is available, below is a quick link to a taste.
The kids seated on the curb are also interviewed in the film. Nice!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvvjIuAdGqw

The second picture here show the Key to the musicians who are in the original photo.

The third picture taken In 1996, Gordon Parks photographed survivors who were still alive showing where they were in 1958 for A Great Day In Harlem.
Note: Sonny Rollins is missing in the 1996 photo. He was standing behind Marian McPartland in 1958 but not in 1996. That should be Marian in the red dress.

As of October 2017, only two of the 57 musicians who participated are still living (Benny Golson and Sonny Rollins)


https://i.imgur.com/RPSgiJT.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/wnAq07p.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/OKJDzNP.jpg

I have a large version of this photo on a wall in our house ( my wife is very easy going ), and love the history behind it.

But I havent seen the You Tube clip before and will be watching it later. Nor have I seen the 1996 version.

fantastic post, thanks so much for putting it up here.

Yep, fascinating stuff.

Absolutely.

As a follow up to this post...I have learnt their is a website devoted to this Historic picture!
http://www.a-great-day-in-harlem.com

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WESTLOWER

A Great Day in Harlem 1958 is a black-and-white group portrait of 57 notable jazz musicians photographed in front of a brownstone in Harlem, New York City.
The photo has remained an important object in the study of the history of jazz.

Art Kane, a freelance photographer working for Esquire magazine, took the picture around 10 a.m. on August 12 in the summer of 1958.
The musicians had gathered at 17 East 126th Street, between Fifth and Madison Avenues in Harlem. Esquire published the photo in its January 1959 issue.
Kane calls it "the greatest picture of that era of musicians ever taken."
One if the biggest achievements was of course getting a Jazz man out of bed to attend a 10 a.m. photo shoot!, well documented in the film of the photo.

The fascinating documentary film on the pictures' story is available, below is a quick link to a taste.
The kids seated on the curb are also interviewed in the film. Nice!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvvjIuAdGqw

The second picture here show the Key to the musicians who are in the original photo.

The third picture taken In 1996, Gordon Parks photographed survivors who were still alive showing where they were in 1958 for A Great Day In Harlem.
Note: Sonny Rollins is missing in the 1996 photo. He was standing behind Marian McPartland in 1958 but not in 1996. That should be Marian in the red dress.

As of October 2017, only two of the 57 musicians who participated are still living (Benny Golson and Sonny Rollins)


https://i.imgur.com/RPSgiJT.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/wnAq07p.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/OKJDzNP.jpg

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Just, coincidently, caught a nice Radio interview with a Journalist who did a piece on the photo, brought me back to this post!
Enjoy if you are new to the story.