JAZZ KATZ The Sound of New York
Jimmy Katz
Cover layout: Dena Katz Layout and design: Michele Giotto - KROMATOS Print: Tipografia Veneta Padova - Italy
JAZZ KATZ The Sound of New York
Jimmy Katz
While in my teens and growing up in New York City, the night I was given tickets to hear Thelonious Monk and Art Blakey at Carnegie hall changed my life forever. I sat third row center and was transfixed by what I heard. I did not understand what was going on in front of me, but what I did know was that it was something very special. I knew I was in the presence of great human emotion and expression and I decided to explore jazz further. Slowly but surely I collected over 4000 jazz records and listened to the music nonstop. After college and a career as a mountaineer and skier, photographing the peaks of the American West and South America for posters and publications, I naively moved back to New York City, NOT just to photograph in the music world, but ONLY to photograph in the jazz world. Within months I met the great drummer Art Taylor at Birdland and we became friends and he introduced me to other musicians. Through Art Taylor, I met one of my musical heroes, the legendary saxophonist Jackie McLean. I was so overwhelmed by being in his presence, that I told my wife Dena that I didn’t actually believe that it was him! Art Taylor also asked me to come to a recording session to make photographs for his next recording project. When I explained that the record label might not want me to do this, he said, “You will, or I won’t take my drums out of their cases!”
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The recording was at the legendary Rudy Van Gelder’s recording studio and the band was well rehearsed. They recorded with everyone right next to each other in the same room the way they often did in the 1950s. I was the only non-musician in the “live room” while they recorded. I sat mesmerized, touching the exact steps where John Coltrane sat, and trying to imagine sitting next to Trane during his recording sessions there. Actually, the whole room felt like a shrine to the music. I was in heaven and thought there was nothing greater in the whole world. Soon after, Art Taylor brought me to Verve records and the master saxophonist, Joe Lovano, brought me to the attention of Blue Note records. The major jazz magazines approached me to photograph covers for them and I was off and running in the jazz world. It was an exciting time for me as I was able to capture legendary performers as well as young talents. Since the early 1990s, besides features, my wife Dena and I have done over 120 magazine covers for Downbeat and JazzTimes alone and have been hired to be involved in over 500 recording projects for a variety of record labels. For twenty- five years, we witnessed the intensity of creative collaboration that few others have been lucky enough to see and hear. One of our more memorable experiences was when the great Andrew Hill asked us to sit perfectly still, almost under his piano, during his last recording session. He was dying of cancer and had much on his mind,
but he wanted to give us the experience of a lifetime. During the past decades I was also able to meet some of my photographic heroes, William Claxton, Bill Gottlieb and the grand master Herman Leonard, all of whose work I had seen for years. These were photographers who had worked within jazz for long periods of time, creating large bodies of work of the major artists of their respective eras and doing this with their own unique photographic styles. Along with Francis Wolf they helped to define the visual history of Jazz and they all have inspired me.
I am very pleased that Gabriella Piccolo, creator of "Padova Jazz Festival� and Giorgio Maso, financial advisor of Allianz Bank have asked me to present these photographs to the world, with a number being published here for the first time. I hope you will enjoy seeing them as much as I enjoyed making them. Jimmy Katz New York City 2014
The selected collection of photographs that follow was made while on assignment purely for my own pleasure. I have been fortunate to have a wide gamut of unique experiences whether photographing Sonny Rollins with the Williamsburg bridge or spending time with Keith Jarrett in his home. I have been honored to have worked with so many great artists and often historical figures in intimate and private situations and have appreciated every minute. I hope that my work reflects something of the direct intensity of New York City. New York City IS the sound of jazz, the powerful energy, the excitement, the syncopation of the traffic, the rush of the subway train, random sirens, a cacophony of random sound. Every jazz artist wants to come to New York to improvise and learn from the best.
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Arthur Taylor - Birdland, New York 1991
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Roy Hargrove, Tyler Mitchell - Club Rococo's, New York 1992
Bobby Hutcherson - Kind of Blue Recording Session, New York 2006
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Marc Cary - Jersey City Pier, New Jersey 1991
Betty Carter, Ari Roland - Jersey City Pier, New Jersey 1991
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Nasheet Waits - MPI Recording Studio, New York 2000
Abraham Burton, Eric McPherson, David Bryant, Dezron Douglas - Smalls Jazz Club, New York 2010
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Freddie Hubbard - Iridium Jazz Club, New York 2003
Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea - Verve Recording Session, New York 1998
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Cecile McLorin Salvant - Jazz Standard, New York 2014
Joe Lovano - Time Square, New York 2010
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Miguel Zenon - Spanish Harlem, New York 2014
Jason Moran with Sons - West 13th Street, New York 2011
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Joe Henderson, John Scofield - New York City 1996
Keith Jarrett at home - New Jersey 1998
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Sonny Rollins - West 26th Street, New York 1998
Roy Haynes - Times Square, New York 2003
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Pat Martino - New York 2005
Dave Holland - New York 2000
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Paul Motian - The Village Vanguard, New York 2001
Robert Glasper - Brooklyn Recording Studios, Brooklyn 2012
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Benny Green, Christian McBride - Blue Note Recording Session, New York 1999
Bill Frisell - Nonesuch Recording Session, New York 2000
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Ornette Coleman at home - New York 2005
Cassandra Wilson - Jazz Standard, New York 2003
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Dave Douglas at home - New York 2013
Dave Brubeck at home - Connecticut 2007
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Esperanza Spalding - New York 2011
Ray Charles - New York 2000
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Gregory Porter - Brooklyn 2013
Christian McBride - New York 2014
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Pat Metheny - Brooklyn 2013
Mark Turner, Chris Potter - Criss Cross Recording Session, Brooklyn 2014
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Roscoe Mitchell - New York 2004
Sonny Rollins - Williamsburg Bridge, New York 2005
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Archie Shepp - Recording Session, Brooklyn, 2000
Kurt Rosenwinkel - West 21st Street, New York 2013
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Dianne Reeves, Cassandra Wilson - Blue Note Recording Session, New York 1995
Elvin Jones, Gerald Cannon - Blue Note Jazz Club, New York 2002
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B.B.King - B.B.King's, New York 2005
Tito Puente - Birdland, New York 1999
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Ahmad Jamal - Iridium Jazz Club, New York 2003
Keith Jarrett at home - New Jersey 1998
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Hank Jones, Ray Brown - Verve 50th Anniversary Rehearsal, Carnegie Hall, New York 1994
Lonnie Smith - Blue Note Recording Session, London 1994
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Wayne Shorter - Blue Note Jazz Club, New York 1996
The Village Vanguard, New York 2007
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Wynton Marsalis - Time Warner Building, New York 2003
George Coleman - NBC Studios, New York 1998
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Joe Lovano, Jack DeJohnette, Esperanza Spalding, Terri Lyne Carrington - New York 2011
McCoy Tyner - Lincoln Center, New York 1992
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Greg Osby - Blue Note Recording Session, Brooklyn 1999
Herbie Hancock - Verve Recording Session, New York 1998
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Tony Bennett - Bennett Studios, New Jersey 2006
Harry "Sweet" Edison, Phil Woods, James Moody - Blue Note Recording Session, New York 1996
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Brad Mehldau at home - New York 2006
Anthony Braxton - New York 2002
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William Parker at home - New York 2005
Max Roach - Supper Club, New York 1993
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McCoy Tyner, Toots Thielemans - Blue Note Jazz Club, New York 2007
Billy Higgins, John Ore - Jazz Standard, New York 1999
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Ron Carter - Verve Recording Session, New York 1992
David S.Ware at home - New Jersey 2003
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Jackie and Rene McLean - Blue Note Recording Session, New York 1997
Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard - Lincoln Center, New York 1992
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Rudresh Mahanthappa - New York, 2014
Nicholas Payton - New Orleans, 2000
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Yuval, Anat and Avishai Cohen - New York, 2012
Mulgrew Miller - Systems Two Recording Studios, Brooklyn, 2003
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Patti Smith, Ornette Coleman at home - 80th Birthday Party, New York, 2010
Andrew Hill - New Jersey Subway, New Jersey 2000
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Thanks
I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to Gabriella Piccolo for her vision and passion for jazz. In addition, I would like to thank Silvia Bazza for her support of my work. I would like to acknowledge Luciano Rossetti and Silvia Pedrini for their extraordinary friendship. Thanks to Giorgio Maso for his support and to Michele Giotto for his precious contribution. Three photographers have helped me to realize my vision are William Winburn, Matt Coch and Tim Dalton. I wish to thank Robert Rosen, Milton Waner and Teresa O. for all their behind the scenes work. This extended project would not have been possible without the constant love and support of my family, Marilyn, George, Emily, Eduardo, Erica & Ariela. My constant companion and collaborator on all my photographic projects has been my wife Dena.
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Cover layout: Dena Katz Layout and design: Michele Giotto - KROMATOS Print: Tipografia Veneta Padova - Italy
Issued 2014
ISBN: 978-88-87222-33-3