Jazz Photography · Sunday January 7, 2007
Is it possible to say what jazz is? It’s not impossible, but it is difficult. It was the punk rock of its time with a similarly though less violently shocking impact, and was all about change. Like punk it doesn’t really exist now as a sociological phenomenon, but like punk it has some discernible characteristics. It’s a culture and a model for innovation, resting on the quality of improvisation which is a form of spontaneous creativity. Even if you don’t listen to jazz and know nothing about it you will have heard it, and will understand how it’s different to classical music or even rock. The former is traditional, craftsmanlike and reverential while the latter is wild, crazy, and, well, rocking. Jazz has those qualities as well, but as part of a different overall picture. In Jazz: A History of America’s Music (Ward Burns 2002) Stanley Crouch says “the presence is always the point” (420), emphasising the jazz process as compared to the product of music. I find that very perceptive. Although he then says “jazz is a music of adult emotion while rock is focussed on adolescent passion” (420) which is an expression of mere opinion, and one which contains perhaps an element of defensiveness based on the relative marginalisation of this music. But it’s an interesting idea: the late John Peel was famous for regarding Teenage Kicks by the Undertones as his all time favourite record, encapsulating a romanticised adolescence of sexual awakening and adolescent individuation in raw musical form. Nothing wrong with that; I look at people like Bob Harris, Annie Nightingale and Jools Holland and think what a great life-path they have, enriched and enlivened by their deep love of music carrying them happily into relatively advanced years. Nightingale has a great late night Radio 2 show and even though she’s an oldie, relatively speaking, she has credibility because she still gets it: she’s down with the kids, and loves it. Even better for Jools Holland because he’s not only musically learned and enlivened, he’s also an accomplished musician himself. But the characteristics of adolescence, wild, rocking, and loud, are adolescent. Kids, you got it right: watching Dad air-guitar Led Zeppelin or Hendrix is damn embarrassing. Jazz is different. So maybe there’s some truth in what Stanley Crouch said.
I’d like to think, as with the music, there’s a corresponding style of jazz photography: elusive and no doubt subjective, but at least seeking to capture the spirit of the thing. A photographer colleague is currently undertaking a project based on emotional response to music, visiting gigs while focussing on photos of the audience. I’m not sure what you can say about it intellectually in the sense that it’s a psychological subject where, for example, the darkness and pulsing light, tremendous volume and rampaging crowds create a state of semi hypnosis similar to shamanism. It can’t really be limited to just “emotional response” because it involves a wider and deeper psychology, not to mention illegal pharmacology. But he’s got some great photos, and I’m struck by how mine are different: they have more serenity, where the passion is evident but restrained. Cool.
I’m inspired by classical black and white work from people like William Claxton, Herman Leonard and others, because I think they got it: the quality of jazz expressed photographically, as a combination of freedom and form. Here’s a famous one from Leonard. The lighting is what makes this a great shot and it’s a simple arrangement of back and side illumination which, at this point in his life when he was starting out, apparently was all he could afford:
Jazz music, through its values and processes, tends to minimize boundaries and maximize freedom which is why management gurus have in recent years tried to use it as a model for creative change (Jamming, by John Kao). By allowing freedom, balanced by guidelines and values, you generate a culture of innovation. This parallels the formidable creativity seen in the life and art of Brue Lee, who was inspired by writers like Krishnamurti (I’ve written about this here) I think good jazz photography has to be restrained but dramatic; it impresses like a black Mercedes, rather than a red Audi, which reminds me a little of the Japanese aesthetic of cool Shibui
Hi, James-
In line with your interest in jazz photography, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Bell to read an article about a friend of mine.
Bob
— Bob Pliskin · Jan 7, 03:21 PM · Bob Pliskin">§
Hi Bob, hmm very interesting. I do like the old-school jazz photography from that era, much as I like the old-school jazz.
— James · Jan 9, 03:00 PM · James">§