The Gallery
A curated collection of images from my archive – Danny Silverstone
Sonny Rollins
Saxophone Colossus
My all-time favorite saxophonist-Sonny has everything-sound, intensity, inventiveness, creativity, and a unique rhythmic sense. His 70-year career was a journey of self-discovery. Aidan Levy’s 2002 biography is a must-read, each page underlines Sonny’s greatness.
“I would like to be remembered as someone who made choices, who made himself a better person, and didn’t listen to the crowd “
John Coltrane
Trane accomplished so much in his short life.
A manic practicer and perfectionist combining intense study with religious fervour and a distinctive yearning, plaintive tone.A giant in the modern jazz universe.
“Trane was the loudest, fastest saxophonist I’ve ever heard”
– Miles Davis
Ornette Coleman
A jazz revolutionary whose arrival on the New York scene in 1959 provoked no end of arguments and disputations.
Like Monk, Ornette always plotted his own path. When all is said and down listen to his unmatched tone, soaked in generations of Texas tenor players.
“He’ll change the entire course of jazz.”
“He’s a fake” “He’s a genius” “I can’t say”
– Quotes from Ornette’s debut at the Five Spot in 1959
Terri Lyn Carrington
From playing and recording with jazz giants in her teens Terri Lynne is now approaching jazz elder status herself and in turn acts a mentor to younger generations of women jazz musicians and a fierce advocate for the work of women jazz composers
“I grew up with that Boston drum legacy of Roy Haynes, Alan Dawson, Toiny Williams. They’re big footprints to walk in-which was inspiring and daunting.”
– Terri Lynne Carrington
Dexter Gordon
Blessed with one of the most instantly recognisable sounds in jazz.
An early bebop tearaway, 10 years lost to narcotics, his reinvention in Europe, late career emergence as a movie star, and one of the greatest of all practitioners of the jazz ballad.
“Dexter should leave his karma to science.”
– Dizzy Gillespie
A Great Day in Harlem
While jazz has generally been poorly served as a subject for literature and cinema its intensity, drama, and available lighting has always attracted great photographers. None more so than in this iconic image of two generations of jazz greats gathered on a Harlem stoop two hours or so after many of them would have finished work for the night