Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/12/20

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Subject: [Leica] OT: W. Eugene Smith & Jazz Loft Project
From: photo at frozenlight.eu (Nathan Wajsman)
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 2009 06:42:21 +0100
References: <483209.24234.qm@web32202.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

Thanks for the link, John, I have bookmarked it for later perusal and 
download.

On this side of the Atlantic, Paris and Copenhagen (yes, the Danish capital) 
were places where many American jazz musicians settled in the 60s and 70s, 
with Dexter Gordon perhaps the best example. By the time I saw him in 
concert in my hometown in the early 80s, he was already back living in New 
York, but still spoke more than passable Danish.

Nathan

Nathan Wajsman
Alicante, Spain
http://www.frozenlight.eu
http://www.greatpix.eu
http://www.nathanfoto.com

Books: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/search?search=wajsman&x=0&y=0
PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws
Blog: http://www.fotocycle.dk/blog



On Dec 20, 2009, at 1:34 AM, John Edwin Mason wrote:

> Over 20 inches (yes, more than 50 centimeters) of snow have fallen on 
> Charlottesville in the last 24 hours.  It's been a great time to immerse 
> myself in the Jazz Loft Project.  Very exciting for anyone who likes jazz 
> or photography or both.  I've been at it for a couple hours, and I'm just 
> getting started.
> 
> The Project comes out of Duke University's Center for Documentary Studies 
> and showcases the thousands of photos and audio recordings that W. Eugene 
> Smith made in his New York loft in the late '50s and early '60s.  It was 
> the place to be, whether you were Thelonious Monk or Henri 
> Cartier-Bresson, Charles Mingus or Salvador Dali.
> 
> I started out listening to this WNYC podcast in which (among many, many 
> other things) jazz bassist Steve Swallow talks about Smith as a "classic 
> Leica" photographer -- "...he'd just kind of shoot it like a pistol."  
> Pianist Paul Bley uses almost the same words when referring to his 
> "six-shooter style."  Photographers Robert Frank and John Cohen show up to 
> talk about Smith, too:
> 
> http://beta.wnyc.org/shows/jazz-loft/2009/nov/29/
> 
> More podcasts and a small gallery of Smith's photos are on WNYC's Project 
> home page:
> 
> http://beta.wnyc.org/shows/jazz-loft/
> 
> Here's a link to the Duke site, which has a larger photo gallery and many 
> of audio samples from the tapes:
> 
> http://www.jazzloftproject.org/
> 
> The Duke site describes the Project this way:
> 
> "From 1957 to 1965 legendary photographer W. Eugene Smith made 
> approximately 4,000 hours of recordings on 1,741 reel-to-reel tapes and 
> nearly 40,000 photographs in a loft building in Manhattan's wholesale 
> flower district where major jazz musicians of the day gathered and played 
> their music.
> 
> "Smith's work has remained in archives until now.
> 
> "The Jazz Loft Project is dedicated to uncovering the stories behind this 
> legendary moment in American cultural history."
> 
> --John
> 
> N.B.  Smith did use Leicas, but also Canon and Nikon RFs, among other 
> cameras.
> 
> ******************************
> John Edwin Mason, Photography:
> http://www.JohnEdwinMason.com
> Charlottesville and Cape Town
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
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> 



In reply to: Message from profmason at yahoo.com (John Edwin Mason) ([Leica] OT: W. Eugene Smith & Jazz Loft Project)