What’s in a Photo?

Ella and Dizzy, 1950. Photo by Herman Leonard

This is a great photo of Ella Fitzgerald experiencing a playfully embrace by the often-jovial Dizzy Gillespie while back stage in New York in 1950.  The famous Jazz photographer Herman Leonard took the photo.  Although at times Leonard talked his subjects into the perfect pose, this photo, however, captures that intimate moment when two legends of Jazz goof off as a way of quelling nervous tension before a performance.

The importance of a photo cannot be overstated.  It is a wonderful medium in which we fully appreciate and place a critical amount of social, cultural, political, and economic value.  It is through photos that we have the opportunity to peer into the past to see that an event did in fact happen.  A photo helps us to keep memories alive and well; they help us to remember the moment.  They also communicate a wonderful sentiment from the past to the present.  If you are like me you can get lost in a photo wondering what it sounds like or smells like or what is just beyond the edges of the image.

In the case of photographer Herman Leonard he has had a lifetime of capturing the essence of the moment especially in the world of Jazz.  Some of his photos are so iconic they conjure up the very definition of Jazz and the Jazz artist.  Without his photos we would have no ideal how Sonny Stitt bends his body as he digs for that note or how tightly Sarah Vaughan closes her eyes before her improvisation or even how artists look as they goof off back stage before a performance.

Here’s to Jazz, the Jazz artist, and the photographer documenting Black music!

Enjoy your BMM!

Chano, Dizzy: Complete The Circle

Chano and Dizzy back stage in 1947. Photo taken by Allan Grant

By the time Lucian Pozo González or Chano Pozo, as he was better known, met Dizzy Gillespie in small New York apartment in 1947, he was already a musical force to be reckoned with.  Chano grew up in poverty in Havana Cuba.  At a young age he learned the ways of the streets and violent survival tactics.  While negotiating a life on the Havana streets, he learned how to play the drums.  He soon began to stand out as the best rumbero (street drummer) in Havana.  He’d play for Afro-Cuban religious ceremonies where the drum was an integral part of worship–drums were an African cultural retention that survived the Maafa and enslavement in the Caribbean. Enslaved Africans were not allowed to utilize drums on American soil and thus a critical piece of African culture was lost to Africans in America.  Chano became the featured drummer in nightclubs and the Carnival.  In 1942 at the age of 27, frustrated with the ongoing hostile political environment in Cuba and in search of a more fulfilling life, Chano migrated to America.  Chano quickly made his way to Chicago were for 5 years he worked odd jobs and as a rumbero for Latin clubs and Latin dance groups.  In an attempt to gain more opportunities in music he move to New York in 1947.  There he met and worked with Latin bandleader Mario Bauzá. Bauzá who was good friends with Gillespie introduced Pozo to Gillespie after the famed trumpeter wanted to add a congero to his band.

The day Chano met Gillespie in New York, in 1947 became one of the most pivotal moments in Jazz history.  This meeting gave birth to a new genre of music called Latin/Afro-Cuban Jazz.  Latin Jazz artist Chucho Valdés celebrates the creation of the genre as he says, “It’s amazing. Latin Jazz was born in New York with Mario Bauzá, Chano Pozo, Dizzy Gillespie, and others. It was called Afro-Cuban because they added Afro-Cuban drums into Dizzy’s band. It was a fusion of many elements.”  Although some Latin artist certainly experimented with intersecting Jazz tunes with Afro-Cuban rhythms and vise versa such as Bauzá’s “Tanga”; however, Dizzy and Chano truly integrated the music forms of swing and Be Bop Jazz with Afro-Cuban clave rhythms to an artistic level.  Chano was responsible for teaching Afro-Cuban rhythms to Gillespie (in Spanish, Chano did not speak English) and in turn, because of Gillespie’s national and global popularity, he was able to introduce Afro-Cuban Jazz to a broader audience than Mario Bauzá could ever have.  Sadly, Chano Pozo was killed a year after meeting Dizzy Gillespie and did not fully realize his contribution to Jazz and Black music in general.

The meeting of Chano Pozo and Dizzy Gillespie by proxy ceremoniously rejoined the descendents of enslaved Africans in America with the lost art of drumming.  Critical African rhythm was joined with uniquely African-American chords, melody, improvisation, and ‘call and response’ to create Afro-Cuban Jazz.  Afro-Cuban is Jazz and Jazz is Black music.  Happy Black Music Month!

Check out Dizzy as he speaks about Chano Pozo, it’s amazing! Then listen to “Manteca” co-written by Chano Pozo who is playing the congas:

Black Music Month Pt. 3 of 4: Jazz

Jazz is by far the most influential music ever created.  I know this is a bold statement, but it is true.  Jazz music has a critical global influence.  I would wager there is no place in the world anyone can travel and not hear some form of Jazz.  There are no pages left in Jazz’s passport.  The genre has never had any problems making its way through customs.  Jazz music, once known as jungle music, and music of the savage, capable of corrupting minds of the most pure soul, and inherently evil, ascended out of the brothels of Storyville, danced its way through the mean streets of St. Louis and Chicago, learned to swing in Harlem, and took flight across The Pond with all the sensibilities of the Black American struggle, was ultimately embraced by the world.

Jay McNeely corrupting the minds of the pure

Jazz, also known as American Classical Music, carries with it the entire narrative of the Black presence on American soil.  It is truth, it is emotion, it is literate, it is pompous, it is fresh, it is uncontainable, and it is love all at the same time.  Jazz is universally appealing and has the ability to change lives.

As the Jazz genre emerged out of the turn of the century, it shifted and transformed its style, rhythm, and movement to accommodate the changing cultural and social tides in America.  Today, moreover, through it all it has been sincere in its production and its message to the masses.

Continue to celebrate this BMM and listen to as much Jazz as you possibly can.  Check out the origins of Jazz in the recordings of Scott Joplin and Buddy Bolden.  Listen to the role of the Blues in the formation of Jazz with W. C. Handy, and Jelly Roll Morton.  Dive deep in to the era that placed Jazz on the map and check out the work of Louis Armstrong.  Learn about swing through the bands of Count Basie, Cab Calloway, and Duke Ellington.  Listen to amazing and classic voices (singers struggle to emulate today) of Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, and Johnny Hartman.

Unmatchable voice

Find out what all the fuss is about Bebop by listening to Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Bud Powell.  Listen to the magic of Jazz through Miles Davis and John Coltrane.  Groove to the descargas of Afro-Cuban Jazz y escuchan a Chano Pozo, Tito Puente, Cal Tjader, Dizzy Gillespie (yes him again), Eddie Palmieri.  Then be reminded Jazz is still hot today and check out the new lions such as Joshua Redman, Roy Hargrove, Gregory Porter, Esperanza Spalding, Ambrose Akinmusire, and Robert Glasper.

For now, listen to 4 of my favorites.