Reverent jazzbos will doubtlessly know what I’m talking about, but in 1958, a storied photographer named Art Kane assembled 57 jazz musicians – including legendary players like Gene Krupa, Count Basie, Art Blakey, Horace Silver, Dizzee Gillesie, Sonny Rollins, Thelonius Monk, Charles Mingus and a whole lot more -- to pose on and around the stoop of 17 East 126th Street for a centerfold spread in Esquire Magazine. The resultant photograph was titled “A Great Day in Harlem” and is deservedly considered an iconic artifact of jazz’s rich history. See it here.
Now, I can’t believe that legendary photograph wasn’t fully on the minds of organizer Katherine Ludwig and photographer Dub Rogers when they assembled this aggregation of East Village noise-rock practitioners for a periodical called NY Talk in March of 1985. Venerable SWANS guitarist Norman Westberg shared it on his Facebook page, and it kinda blew my mind. That's it at the top of this post. Click on it to enlarge.
Convened in the La Plaza Cultural de Armando Perez Community Garden on East 9th Street between Avenues B and C, here are gathered members of Sonic Youth, Rat at Rat R, Steppin Razor, In The Vines, the Blowtorch Boys, Live Skull, Carbon, Details at 11, 3 Teens Kill 4, SWANS, and Missing Foundation (referred to here as “The Peter Missing Foundation”).
I love the tag line: Nothing homogenous here – no formula, no idols, no rules to break or follow. Their association is by location.
I have to confess that while I would have been a high school senior at the time of this photograph, I have absolutely zero recollection of ever seeing a copy of NY Talk. I’m curious to check it out, but back issues go for princely sums on eBay.
Most of these folks left the Lower East Side years ago, but, more recently, the terraced steps those musicians were pictured on looks like this….
Recent Comments