: The greatest jazz musicians of all time and the jazz scene of the
1940s through the 1960s are the subject of a new exhibition of
photography that opens at the Bruce Museum on July 22 and
continues through October 22. "Jazz Greats: Herman Leonard
Photographs From the Bruce Museum Collection" features the images
by a photographer whose passion for jazz drew him to New York
City's swinging clubs of Broadway, 52nd Street and Harlem
beginning in the late 1940s.
With the camera as his free ticket, Herman Leonard photographed
and developed friendships with many of the luminaries of jazz
history, including Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Ella
Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington and
Theolonious Monk.
These photographs, all given to the Bruce Museum by Gloria and
Fernando Barnuevo in 2004, are now part of the museum's permanent
collection.
Leonard's background in photography included a year's
apprenticeship in 1947 with the famed portraitist Yousuf Karsh,
with whom he gained invaluable experience photographing the likes
of Albert Einstein, President Harry S. Truman and Clark Gable. In
1948, Leonard opened a studio in New York City's Greenwich
Village, where he did commercial work for Life, Look, Esquire,
Playboy and Cosmopolitan, and made portraits of movie
and theater stars. At night, he haunted the jazz nightclubs using
a Speed Graphic press camera to produce portraits of the most
famous names of jazz as well as those beloved by jazz insiders.
These photographs document an explosive time in the history of
jazz. Musicians were traveling not only with the Big Bands
throughout the United States but also through Europe. Leonard
photographed them all: Charlie Parke in the midst of one of his
madcap performances on the saxophone, taken a few years before
his untimely death; a radiant Lena Horne; Stan Getz at Birdland;
Ella Fitzgerald, the First Lady of Song, at the Downbeat Club;
Dinah Washington at the mike at the Newport Jazz Festival; Louis
Armstrong and his horn; and many others.
Herman Leonard, "Thelonius Monk, NYC, 1949," silver gelatin
print, 14 by 11 inches, Bruce Museum collection.
Leonard's photographic career took many interesting and
diverse turns. In 1956, Marlon Brando chose Leonard as his personal
photographer for a trip to the Far East to research Teahouse of
the August Moon. Upon returning, Leonard moved to Paris to
assume the position as chief photographer for the French music
label Barclay Records.
He also worked for many years as the European photographer for
Playboy magazine and did reportage as well as fashion and
advertising for such firms as Dior, Chanel and Yves St Laurent,
among others. In 1980, he moved to the island of Ibiza, Spain,
where he spent seven years raising his family. It was there that
he rediscovered the forgotten jazz negatives in a box under his
bed.
In 1988, his jazz photographs were first shown in London with
great success. Since then, Leonard has had more than 85
exhibitions worldwide. The Smithsonian Institution in Washington
has honored him by requesting his entire collection for their
permanent archives of musical history.
In 1996, President Bill Clinton requested a collection of
Herman's work to present to the King of Thailand, an avid jazz
musician, as an official gift from the United States government.
In addition, Leonard has produced two books: The Eye of
Jazz and Jazz Memories, a personal photographic diary
of his early career.
The Bruce Museum is at 1 Museum Drive. For information,
www.brucemuseum.org or 203-869-0376.
