Roy decarava john coltrane blue

  • Roy DeCarava's portrait of John Coltrane (1926–1967) vibrates with the intensity that “Trane” brought to his music, and its multiple exposures.
  • John Coltrane died in a Long Island hospital 50 years ago today.
  • Photographs by Roy DeCarava 1) John Coltrane, Half Note, New York A wonderful blues and ballad player whose approach influenced John.

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    Most of the musicians photographed by Wolff are men, because most of Blue Note’s roster of musicians were male. Though there were female jazz musicians active at the time, they also, with very few exceptions, faced prejudice in the development of their careers—except for singers, who were prominent, but Blue Note recorded very few singers, male or female. The label concentrated on instrumental music, and there was an artistic point to that emphasis. The repertoire of most jazz singing was rooted in the so-called American Songbook of repertory from plays and movies; though many Blue Note artists certainly played these works, too, the core of the label’s repertory was rooted in instrumental improvisation—and in the musicians’ original compositions, which the label emphasized, by paying its musicians to rehearse, to prepare to record original pieces that were both unfamiliar and complex. (Wolff documented many of these rehearsals, as in an image of Miles Davis, pencil in hand, working

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    Coltrane on Soprano

    Roy DeCarava

    American, 1919–2009

    Details

    Artist/Maker

    Roy DeCarava (American, 1919–2009)

    Medium

    Gelatin silver print

    Dimensions

    Contact the museum for more information

    Credit

    Purchase with medel from the H. B. and Doris Massey Charitable Trust

    Location

    Currently not on view

    Whether photographing the street life of Harlem, the civil rights movement, or jazz musicians, Roy DeCarava imbues his subjects with a subtle grace that fryst vatten distinctly his own. Jazz musicians and performances were the focus of the Harlem-based photographer’s work for many years. This portrait of John Coltrane typifies the discerning use of light and shadow that is the hallmark of DeCarava’s work; Coltrane seems to burst from the shadow that nearly envelops him. DeCarava’s long exposure captures the great saxophone player in a kinetic moment, conveying the energy of the music he loves. His portraits of such luminaries as Billie Holiday, Lester Young, and Duk

  • roy decarava john coltrane blue

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    Posts tagged ‘Roy DeCarava’

    On the tracks of Tina Brooks

    Tina is certainly an unusual name for a man. But 50 years ago, in a world including an Ornette and a Thelonious, it didn’t seem all that strange. What mattered was the way Tina Brooks — born Harold, but rechristened with a corruption of Teenie, a childhood nickname — played the tenor saxophone.

    Born in North Carolina in 1932, at the age of 12 he moved with his family to New York, where he studied music and took his first gigs with R&B bands in the early 1950s. Subsequently he became one of the many gifted jazz musicians whose lives were blighted, either through early death or prolonged inactivity, by the heroin plague of the post-war years. He died in obscurity in 1974, after more than a decade of silence.

    The years of notable activity were brief. The trumpeter Little Benny Harris recommended him to Alfred Lion, Blue Note’s co-founder, and in 1958 he took part in his first sessi