Jazz in Black and White: The Photographs of Duncan Schiedt
Schiedt exposed his first roll of film in 1939, when he aimed his Argus at Benny Goodman from the fifth row of New York's Paramount Theater. Since then, he has written books on music and presented his photographs in magazines, books and films, including Ken Burns's PBS documentary Jazz. This showcase arranges 80 b&w pictures of jazz musicians (dating from the 1950s to today) into an attractive package, sleek and glossy. A brief bio faces each photo, along with Schiedt's anecdotal memories of musicians and venues. Schiedt shot in b&w because, he writes, "Jazz is a black and white music. Its range, from blinding brilliance to deepest shadings, seems to demand the drama that black and white can so easily provide." In these pages, jazz greats emerge from the silky shadows, among them Satchmo, Bird, Miles, Monk and Coltrane. Schiedt arrays the images stylistically, beginning with early jazz legends (Sidney Bechet), followed by figures from the Swing Era (Bobby Hackett), pianists (Erroll Garner), modern jazz artists (Wes Montgomery) and younger talents (Michiko Ogawa). Vinyl vocalists (Joe Williams, Anita O'Day) bring the set to a close, but Schiedt adds a concluding coda on producers (George Avakian) and writers (Nat Hentoff). As pianist Marian McPartland notes, the book "evokes a warm remembrance of times gone by."Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.