My copy of this book is a gift from a fellow railfan. The January 1959 issue of Esquire was devoted to “The Golden Age of Jazz.” On 14 August 1958, Esquire gathered nearly sixty jazz musicians on the stoop, stairs, and sidewalk in front of a West 126th Street Harlem brownstone house for a group photograph published in that issue. The book comprises the story behind that photograph, related events, biographies of many of the musicians, and related photographs, All very interesting reading and a great picture of a an era and culture.
It is a train story, because Duke Ellington could not make the date at East 126th Street, and instead was photographed by Art Kane at the front of an “A Train” in the 207th Street, Washington Heights, yards. This photograph would be included here if reproducing a photo from a 1959 magazine and a 2000 book is permissible under TRAINS’ policies. Can someone tell me? It is also on the wall of my apartment, in tribute to the Duke’s music and in nostalgia for the “8th Avenue Subway,” that I rode very frequently when growing up in New York.
But the most important message of the book might be the demonstration of the real brotherly love across ethnic, racial, and religious boundaries, and even professional rivalry, that Jazz produced. But only five women are represented, two singers, one the woman responsible for the successful movie about the picture A great Day in Harlem, and two others, wives of included men.
Thanks for posting this, daveklepper; it was most interesting to read the story behind that famous and powerful photograph. What giants roamed the land in those days!
I love New York. When I go, I often stay at the New Yorker Hotel, which sits atop the 8th Avenue subway at 34th Street, almost catty-corner to Penn Station. Talk about convenient for a railfan!
Can you recall that well-known nighttime photo of Penn Station taken from above, with every bit of the glass lit up? By my reckoning, that photo was taken from suite 4005 at the New Yorker…my room, as it were. Needless to say, the current view of Madison Square Garden isn’t nearly as impressive, although they do illuminate it at night with colorful lights, which is a nice touch.
But I never go to New York without hearing in my mind “Take the A train,” and to me it is the quintessential song about that great city.
And more proof of Jazz jumping borders (peerhsaps true of good music in general?)
From Jack May’s Southern Europeqn - Vienna, Brtislava - Ukrain trip. Lviv, the Ukrain:
And the advertizing poster with Uncle Sam is for a real-estate company that is named the American real-estate company, without any known connection to the USA or Canada or other American country.
One woman I listed as a singer was a pianists. Also, in addition to the two other woman, about ten others were mentioned in individual singers’ biographies and in other memories recounted in the book. Regarding the role of women in Jazz, Jean Bach, responsible for the movie about the picture, A Great Day in Harlem, writes as follows on page 69:
“You would have thought that by the time this picture was taken, Summer 1958, there would be more than three women in the group. But there they are, two pianists and one wonderful singer, Maxine Sullivan, Marian McPartland, and Mary Lou Williams.”
I just love that piano jazz sound, especially Marian McParlands!
I don’t know about you, but it fills my mind with an image of a big-city cocktail lounge, filled with mature sophisticated men and women, highball and martini glassware clinking in the background, and a slight smoky haze just under the ceiling. “Smoky haze!” you ask. Well, that was back in the days before everyone knew it was bad for you!
Dave, your thread has everything except Art Kane’s iconic photo itself. The Daily News has the best version online, “interactive,” identifying who by clicking on any individual in the photo.
