A Bad Day

The Herman Leonard exhibit last fall at Lincoln Center. Photo by Brian Smith.

Saturday was a bad day for jazz fans, and photographers. We lost Abbey Lincoln—and Herman Leonard.

Here's Mr. Leonard's obituary, from the L.A. Times. Here's Ms. Lincoln's, from New York, where she lived on the Upper West Side. He was 87, she was 80.

At the Brian Smith link, above, take a look at the examples of the Herman Leonard prints destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Brian comments, "out of tragedy, sometimes comes beauty." 

At Herman's website, they quote what Tony Bennett said when he was told Frank Sinatra had died: "I don't have to believe that."

Cover photograph from Abbey Sings Abbey, from 2007 (Photo by Jean-Marc Lubrano).

As for Abbey Lincoln, do me a favor. Go to iTunes or eMusic and look up a 1957 album of hers called "That's Him." (Forgive me, I prefer the Riverside titles from the '50s, jazz from the second half of the '50s being where I live, musically speaking.) Download the song "Tender as a Rose." Don't play it right away. Late tonight, when everything's quiet and dark and no one's bothering you, cue it up and have a listen.

A fond farewell.

Mike

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Original contents copyright 2010 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Featured Comment by Ed hawco: "There's a nice gallery of some of Leonard's work at the Edelman Gallery's website. (With big thumbnails—easy to navigate.)"

Featured Comment by Ron W: "On the Legendary Rhythm and Blues Cruise in 2005 I discovered that Mr. Leonard was one of the passengers, and we had some wonderful conversations about music and photography. Thinking about what he said and what others have said, he was very encouraging of other photographers.  Several of his photos are in a slideshow on the Washington Post website [behind a free password —Ed.] and he was also recently honored by the Montreal Jazz Festival.  I was pleased to purchase one of his books from him, and of course there will finally be an American published book of his photographs coming out this fall.

"There are obituaries for both Ms. Lincoln and him on the allaboutjazz.com website.

"Let us celebrate two well-lived lives that have passed on."

Comments

[Paul]

This has always been my favorite:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Apfw6jKYoxI

[Derek]

Sigh. I regret that I never had a chance to see Abbey Lincoln in concert. And, once again thanks to TOP, I've learned about another photographer who's taken many, many photographs that I've seen and admired. I love his iconic shot of Dexter Gordon, the one mentioned in the obit. I think it graces the cover of Gordon's "Best of" from Blue Note.

Since we're on the topic of jazz artists from the late '50s: if you're like Mike (and I count myself in his good company on this one) and live part of your musical life in that era, Hugh Masekela is touring again. At least, he's coming to the Twin Cities, my current home, and I can't imagine this would be a likely choice for a singular show.... Anyway, if he's coming your way, see him while you still have the chance.

[SHJ]

Hi Mike,
A sad day indeed. Lovely song choice.
I will also recommend You Gatta Pay the Band with Stan Getz. By that time she had creative control and they got along so beautifully together.

[Bahi]

The photo of Abbey Lincoln is credited here (with another here, apparently from the same album) to Jean-Marc Lubrano.

[Mike Johnston]

Thanks Bahi. I added that to the post.

Mike

[Joel Bartlett]

A wonderful remembrance of Herman Leonard on NPR on Monday: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129236315

jfb

[Douglas Urner]

Mike, if you ever so inclined I'd really appreciate some "jazz for beginners" posts -- I feel like I'd like to be interested in jazz but have never found a way into it, save for some of Glen Moore's work, I think it was the bass duets that he did with David Friesen, but alas I no longer have a turntable and nothing I've found on iTunes rings a bell.

[Judith Wallerius]

Paul, could you maybe give an alternate place to listen to your favourite, or even just the title?

YouTube once again tells me that certain content is not available in my country, without even telling me what it is it keeps me from seeing and hearing. Not the smartest way to enforce copyright, as this makes it impossible to even go somewhere and buy a song out of sheer curiosity.

So please, everyone, if you go to the trouble of posting a link somewhere to music you like, do include the full name of artist and title. Otherwise you may exclude everyone not in your country of origin from even knowing what you are talking about, and possibly everyone reading it a while after the fact, when content simply has been taken down. Thank you in advance :)

[Patrick Snook]

Mike,

Oh I love to hear singers I've never heard, but oh the melancholy to hear about her like this. I followed your orders, sort of, and listened to the 30-second clips on iTunes (although I'm saving "Tender as a Rose" for later), and the first thing that caught my ear was the piano accompaniment. My word! Wynton Kelly. Not aware of him either. Like Errol Garner or George Shearing. All color and subtlety. The spare touch! Abbey: dark and strong voice. In tune (that helps). Lovely. Such a loss.

Off topic a bit: have you heard the (living) Philly-based singer Melody Gardot? Smashing.

Patrick

[Mike Johnston]

Patrick,
Do a search for Melody Gardot on TOP. I did a brief review and something about the cover photo, I believe.

Mike

[Bill Hughes]

Audio slideshow of Leonard shots on the bbc website. Class, pure and simple.
Really makes me want to break out my OM4 with Tri-X.
Or give up.

[Bill Hughes]

Had to come back with this image of Duke Ellington. It's what I'd really like to take, and have on my study wall. It really is almost a black and white photo, not a lot of grey showing, fantastic image of a great musician.
R.I.P. guys.

[Douglas Urner]

The BBC has a wonderful slideshow-with-sound tribute to Herman Leonard. It's some of his photographs, beautifully printed in B&W, set to a medley of jazz standards. Absolutely wonderful.