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Profile: Jackman on Jazz

Unlike a lot of my friends, Rhythm & Blues, and Jazz were not common types of music heard on the radio or record player in the home where I grew up. I guess I discovered R & B on my own, and with the help of Aunt Morice's old 78's of Louis Jordan's tunes, such as, “Open the Door Richard,” and “Your Feet's Too Big.” I wish I had been more careful with those delicate (and now valuable) 78's. By the time I was in high school, I had discovered artist such as Ruth Brown, Fats Domino, and Chuck Berry on the radio. We had a great R & B station in Boston, WILD, but I thought I was in heaven when I discovered the Hartford Hound (Hartford, Connecticut), and then later the Buffalo Hound (Buffalo, New York) on late night radio. Perhaps I would have been into jazz a lot quicker if, in my freshmen year in high school, I had heeded my cousin Albert's advice, and listened to Symphony Sid on the local radio station. At that time, I thought that Symphony Sid was probably someone who played classical music. By my junior or senior year, I started listening to Symphony Sid, and then began my love affair with Jazz.

Photography and Jazz didn't come together until many years later, when I discovered the Left Bank Jazz Society in Baltimore, Maryland. Every Sunday they would have concerts at the Famous Ballroom, featuring the greatest jazz artist on the East Coast and from time to time, outstanding artist from other sections of the US. There was a group of photographers, who were there every week, such as Floyd Smith and Latchman Persuad, and it was through them that I developed a love for jazz photography.

Photographers who I have admired through the years, who specialize in jazz photography, include Robert O. Torrence from Baltimore and Frank Wolff, one of the founders of the Blue Note label.

In conclusion, I thought I knew a lot about jazz until I settled down in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area and started hanging around with people such as George Hall, Randolph Gumby, and Ben Johnson (an outstanding jazz photographer in his own right), all of whom take their jazz very, very seriously.

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flickr.com/photos/alan_jackman