"The Sound I Saw" (Roy DeCarava)

[Big Beat Steve]

The other day I chanced upon a copy of the huge coffee table book "The Sound I Saw - Improvisations On A Jazz Theme" with the photographs of Roy DeCarava (Phaidon, 2001).
It came my way as part of a huge jazz book haul, and I had not been aware of this book before. Very, very impressive - amazing that it took almost 40 years for the preparation and conception of these photographs and texts compiled in 1962 to materialize into an actual book. (I have a hunch, though, some of the photographs are even older than that - at least one pic from the book showed up in the 1955 "The Family of Man" exhibition at the MMA) 
The combination of photos from "everyday New York" at work and jazzmen at work is amazing and fascinating and they really tell a story ...

Now my question to those familiar with this book: While I can identify a lot of the jazzmen pictured in the book there are many that I am unable to put a name to (or am unsure anyway). So I wonder: 
Does anyone know of any source where someone out there has gone to the trouble of identifying and listing all the jazzmen (and women) shown throughout the book? This task is certainly not made easier by the fact that the pages are unnumbered, and yet I wonder ...
Any hints and leads will be appreciated! 

Edited 21 hours ago by Big Beat Steve

[Fer Urbina]

I have done a bit of that, with photos that seem to come from one session by Tony Scott at Webster Hall, here: https://jazzontherecord.blogspot.com/2018/07/image-and-sound-webster-hall-1956.html

If you're interested in any other face in particular, I'd be glad to help.

F

[Big Beat Steve]

Thanks a lot, Fernando!! So I was right when I figured that that guy wearing the cap looked treacherously like Tony Scott! (Sahib Shihab and Gigi Gryce also were easy to identify) Offhand I just could not think of a big band session that he led. Though I ought to have known and ought to have searched further ... because I do own the "Complete Tony Scott" album. 

As for others to identify, I might well contact you via MP (our should I put the photos here for everyone to see and identify?). One that comes to mind right away is the pic (about 20 pages into the book) of four bassists jamming together (studio? backstage?). Percy Heath (second from right) is obvious, but the others?

Many thanks again! 

 

 

[Fer Urbina]

12 minutes ago, Big Beat Steve said:

One that comes to mind right away is the pic (about 20 pages into the book) of four bassists jamming together (studio? backstage?). Percy Heath (second from right) is obvious, but the others?

Left to right: Joe Benjamin, I think Eddie Calhoun (Erroll Garner's bassist), Heath, and Count Basie's Eddie Jones.

[Big Beat Steve]

Wow ... what knowledge! I am impressed!
Do you have any idea if this was taken at an occasion that was recorded?

[Fer Urbina]

1 hour ago, Big Beat Steve said:

Do you have any idea if this was taken at an occasion that was recorded?

By the look of it, I think it could be backstage at a festival and I don't think it was recorded. If that's the case, and I'm right about Calhoun, it'd be a matter of triangulating: Jones, Heath, and Calhoun almost definitely imply having Basie, the MJQ and Erroll Garner in the same place -- Joe Benjamin was more of a free agent (he was with Brubeck for some months in 1958, for instance). A candidate would be Newport '59, where Basie, the MJQ, and Garner played, but I haven't had the time to check whether Benjamin was there at all.

 

[jlhoots]

I have a copy. Great book.

[Big Beat Steve]

1 hour ago, Fer Urbina said:

By the look of it, I think it could be backstage at a festival and I don't think it was recorded. If that's the case, and I'm right about Calhoun, it'd be a matter of triangulating: Jones, Heath, and Calhoun almost definitely imply having Basie, the MJQ and Erroll Garner in the same place -- Joe Benjamin was more of a free agent (he was with Brubeck for some months in 1958, for instance). A candidate would be Newport '59, where Basie, the MJQ, and Garner played, but I haven't had the time to check whether Benjamin was there at all.

 

Thanks, that sounds plausible. 

BTW, browsing through the book again, I noticed a photo on the page preceding the page that shows the second photo from the Webster Hall date on your blog: visibly taken at a break during a recording session (the engineer's booth is visible in the background), with two men (musicians, probably) reading their newspapers. Could this have been taken at the same Webster Hall session?