This week - we peer into some new releases - bassist Dwayne Dolphin’s “Let the Music Play” - produced by Orrin Evans - is going for national release this month. We revisit our chat with him from a few months ago when the record first came together.
Dwayne is ALSO on the new release from the trio Norside - along with the Steeltown Horns - it's called “Coal and Soul” with Glenn Strother, Steve Ippolito and Skip Sanders joined by Dwayne, JD Chaisson, Reggie Watkins and Rick Matt.
Also new this month - the WDR Big Band out of Cologne Germany (including Pittsburgh’s Billy Test on piano) with music of Ayn Inserto - and featuring Pittsburgh connected trumpeter Sean Jones.
We also take a look back at a historic jazz photo in the first year since the last person in the image has passed (Sonny Rollins). We were especially encouraged to remind ourselves of the photo with the interview bassist Ron Carter sat for with CBS Sunday Morning about the Great Day in Harlem (link, below).
A Great Day in Harlem, revisited
August 12, 1958 - a notable photograph was taken in Harlem.
Now known as “A Great Day in Harlem” or “Harlem 1958,” this black and white photo by freelance photographer Art Kane has become an iconic imprint on this moment in time, preserved for today. It was published in 1959 in Esquire Magazine.
Pittsburgh’s part in the photo include the presence of Art Blakey, Roy Eldridge, Maxine Sullivan and Mary Lou Williams.
68 years later, with the passing of Sonny Rollins and Benny Golson, there are no adult jazz musicians from that photo still with us: In 2019, reporter Anthony Mason of CBS This Morning made a wonderful feature of the 60th anniversary of the publication - with saxophonist Benny Golson (who had thrown away his copy years ago - but they got him a replacement)!
Also in this post, we have the very recent CBS Sunday Morning feature with bassist jazz legend Ron Carter, who came to NYC from Detroit just a year after the Art Kane photograph was snapped.
We hear saxophonist Benny Golson from a 2009 release called New Time New-Tet that came out around the time of the release of the film The Terminal, a Tom Hanks movie jazz fans need to see if you haven't. And a lot of it is about this great day in Harlem photograph that Art Kane did in 1958. And there’s even a key moment in the film featuring Benny Golson. He wrote that tune Whisper Not. He was a key member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, and we hear him joined by Al Jarreau 2009 release.
We also share words from Art Kane from the 1994 Documentary “A Great Day in Harlem” by Jean Bach. Also featured, bassist (and photographer) Milt Hinton, plus musicians Gerry Mulligan and Scoville Browne, plus the wife Milt, Mona Hilton - she was recruited to run a movie camera to capture much of the day. Milt Hinton’s home movies from that day became the foundation of the award winning documentary.
The Scene - Thursdays at 6pm, Friday at Saturdays at noon, Sundays at 5pm on WZUM.
Orrin Evans
CBS This Morning, January 19, 2019
A deeper dive by filmmaker Jean Bach on the creation of the documentary about A Great Day in Harlem.
Part two of a deeper dive by filmmaker Jean Bach on the creation of the documentary about A Great Day in Harlem.