The Golden Age of Jazz
William Gottlieb stumbled onto photography by default. As a young reporter covering jazz  during the 1930s and 1940s, he discovered that theWashington Postcouldn't be bothered to  dispatch a staff photographer. Gottlieb took to lugging along his Speed Graphic and a generous supply of  flashbulbs, and as he interviewed his subjects he took pictures of them as well--brilliant pictures, in fact.  Many have become canonical images: who can think of Billie Holiday, for example, without visualizing  Gottlieb's famous head shot? Likewise, his whimsical photos of Dizzy Gillespie have become bebop icons.  Yet his group portraits are even richer, suggesting miniature narratives and then leaving it to the viewer to  provide the ending. (Which of Ellington's sidemen, I want to know, won that poker game so assiduously  witnessed by Django Reinhardt?)The Golden Age of Jazzcollects more than 200 of these gems,  along with an informative text by the photographer, and it's hard to imagine a better source of visual  delights for a jazz fan.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.