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Jazz Seen
Book by William Claxton
- GenresMusicNonfiction
287 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 1999
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September 8, 2016
Chocablock with fabulous photos, this collection by the photographer William Claxton is riveting for anyone interested in 1950s jazz.
Why 1950s? Well, that's where most of the photos are from. It struck me as odd that the book has no structure or thematic divisions or any chronological sense at all. The photos are just paraded by us in a random, jumbled fashion. As I looked more closely, I found the bulk of the photos date from 1954 to 1960. There are some either side and then a clump from the early to mid-nineteen nineties. There are none between 1964 and 1992. Why? We never learn. It is nice to see Chris Isaak and the elderly Sonny Rollins, but the book would have been much better if it had been limited to the nineteen-fifties and sixties, a very interesting period musically, and when American jazz men were the best-dressed cats on the planet.
It's nice, however, to see the young Dave Brubeck sans spectacles, Paul Desmond with this sax, sitting behind a desk and the Sonny Rollins Way Out West album cover. There is a lovely shot of Thelonious Monk on a cable car in San Francisco, after overcoming his reluctance for the idea.
My favourite pic is of Shorty Rogers smiling in his son's tree house, with the boy at the bottom the ladder. You have to look twice to see there is a jazz musician in the photo.
Good book, but just for individual photos you might like.
Why 1950s? Well, that's where most of the photos are from. It struck me as odd that the book has no structure or thematic divisions or any chronological sense at all. The photos are just paraded by us in a random, jumbled fashion. As I looked more closely, I found the bulk of the photos date from 1954 to 1960. There are some either side and then a clump from the early to mid-nineteen nineties. There are none between 1964 and 1992. Why? We never learn. It is nice to see Chris Isaak and the elderly Sonny Rollins, but the book would have been much better if it had been limited to the nineteen-fifties and sixties, a very interesting period musically, and when American jazz men were the best-dressed cats on the planet.
It's nice, however, to see the young Dave Brubeck sans spectacles, Paul Desmond with this sax, sitting behind a desk and the Sonny Rollins Way Out West album cover. There is a lovely shot of Thelonious Monk on a cable car in San Francisco, after overcoming his reluctance for the idea.
My favourite pic is of Shorty Rogers smiling in his son's tree house, with the boy at the bottom the ladder. You have to look twice to see there is a jazz musician in the photo.
Good book, but just for individual photos you might like.
Displaying 1 of 1 review