A Great Day in Harlem

I have a large, framed version of A Great Day in Harlem above my piano. I draw inspiration from it each day.

One of the fascinating dimensions of this picture is that it brings together in one sitting a group of outstanding musicians all born in the first 3 decades of the 20th century. Individually responsible for establishing the language of jazz for the 20th & 21st centuries. Here you have a full set of jazz idioms,

• Mainstream- Pee Wee Russell, Roy Eldridge
• Bebop-Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Pettiford
• Hard Bop- Art Blakey, Johnny Griffin
• Soul Jazz- Horace Silver, Gigi Grice
• Swing and Big Band jazz- Count Basie, Gene Krupa & Jimmy Rushing
• Beyond category- Coleman Hawkins & Sonny Rollins
• Composer-led bandleaders- Charles Mingus and Mary Lou Williams

In my view these categories- usually the invention of jazz critics rather than jazz musicians -have limited value, certainly in terms of one’s enjoyment or understanding of jazz. But what this group picture does embody is the dynamism and constant adaptations and changes that underpinned jazz through these musicians’ lifetimes. And all of them-with the sad exception of Lester Young who had less than a year to live- were at or near their peak in 1958.

I’d like to draw out particular characteristics of the jazz life that this photograph represents, picture embodies, namely musicians coming together both across and within the generations. Jazz masters playing with future jazz masters. Jazz masters playing with jazz masters of their own generation.

Across the generations

Here I’m going to focus on two cross-generational pairings; Sonny Rollins and Coleman Hawkins and Charles Mingus and Roy Eldridge.

Sonny Rollins & Coleman Hawkins

In the attached video Sonny talks eloquently about his hero worship of Coleman Hawkins as he was growing up in the Sugar Hill section of Harlem, where Hawkins also resided. At one point offering to carry Hawk’s saxophone to a midtown gig. The video is also worth watching for Sonny’s reflections on the influence of Ben Webster and Lester Young on his early formation as a player.

The case has been made many times that Coleman Hawkins single-handedly established the tenor sax in the lexicon of modern jazz, nowhere more so than in his revolutionary solo on Body & Soul recorded as early as 1939. This solo has been the subject of mandatory study for subsequent generations of jazz musicians ever since. A similar case could be made for Lester Young who also appears in the photo. Hawk’s muscular tone, incredibly advanced harmonic grasp, his comfort in a wide range of jazz genres and his lifelong interest in seeking out up-and-coming young lions to play with mark him out as a jazz immortal. 

My playlist gives you the chance to hear and compare Hawkins’s original take on Body & Soul with Rollins’s solo version recorded in 1958, the year of the photo. My choice from the Sonny meets Hawk album recorded four years after the group photo was taken exemplifies the shared history and individual trajectories of these two phenomenal musicians. Sonny Rollins although now retired from the concert platform and recording studio is still very much with us at 91.

Charles Mingus & Roy Eldridge

By 1958 the irascible Charles Mingus had established his path as a bandleader whose assembly would become a vehicle for Mingus’s voluminous output of original compositions and re-imaginings of established tunes within the jazz canon. Having served a 10–year apprenticeship as a supremely accomplished, classically schooled bass player initially with Red Norvo in LA and then with the founding fathers of the bebop generation in New York in the 1950’s, Mingus was now ready to plot his own totally distinctive course. Always on his own terms, even if that led, as it sometimes did, to verbally abusing and occasionally assaulting his audiences and band members.

While Mingus was a true original, he was always ready to acknowledge his influences-black churches, Duke Ellington, the civil rights struggles, tin pan alley and show tunes, 20th century classical music. In 1962 Mingus joined Max Roach and his mentor, Duke Ellington in an explosive recording, Money Jungle. I’ll return to this extraordinary album in a future episode.

So, it was entirely in keeping with Mingus’s jazz aesthetic that in his album Charles Mingus and the Newport Jazz Rebels, he chose to pay homage to Roy Eldridge, one of the great trumpeters of a much earlier generation. Born in 1911, and entirely self–taught, Eldridge developed a personal approach to the “hot” jazz trumpet style of Louis Armstrong. A featured soloist in the Fletcher Henderson orchestra through the 30’s and a frequent accompanist to Billie Holliday throughout her career. In 1942 Roy broke through the “colour bar” to join and tour with Gene Krupa’s all-white big band. 

By 1958 Roy was a regular participant in Norman Granz’s Jazz at the Philharmonic, which provided a show case for top jazz soloists to be reasonably well paid, touring one-nighters in large auditoria in the U.S. and indeed globally. Eldridge and Dizzy Gillespie had a particularly close affiliation as you can see from the picture-Dizzy is the guy on the extreme right with his tongue pointing at Roy.

Mingus’s radical, cutting-edge combo would have been quite a challenge to the more mainstream Eldridge, but as you can hear on Body and Soul (again!) he rises to that challenge with ease.  Mingus provides a bespoke, & respectful context in which Eldridge could best be showcased. And also, a unique opportunity to hear Eldridge on the same bandstand as the revolutionary saxophonist, & flautist Eric Dolphy.

The album title – The Jazz Rebels is also interesting. In 1960 Mingus and Max Roach led a breakaway from the annual jazz festival at Newport in protest against pay, scheduling and what they saw as a narrow and outmoded approach to the presentation of contemporary jazz music. The album was recorded live at their alternative to the Newport festival. Somewhat ironic given that Roy Eldridge was a mainstay in the similarly middle-of-the-road Jazz at the Philharmonic roadshow. Worth noting that Jo Jones, the founder of modern jazz drumming is present on both the picture and album. Another nod towards jazz across the generations.

Within their generation

On the playlist, I have curated a range of recordings involving photo participants from the same generation, all established top line players in the ecology of New York jazz of that era.