A great day in Harlem, once again
August 12, 1958 – a remarkable photograph was taken in Harlem.
Now known as “A Great Day in Harlem” or “Harlem 1958,” this black-and-white photograph by freelance photographer Art Kane has become an iconic imprint of the moment that remains to this day. It was published in Esquire Magazine in 1959.
66 years later, of the 57 adult jazz musicians in this photo, only two are still with us: Benny Golson and Sonny Rollins. In 2019, reporter Anthony Mason of CBS This Morning did a wonderful piece on the 60th anniversary of the release – featuring saxophonist Benny Golson (who threw away his copy years ago – but they got him a replacement!)
We hear saxophonist Benny Golson from a 2009 release called New Time New-Tet, which came out around the same time as the movie Terminal, a Tom Hanks film that jazz fans should definitely see if they haven’t seen it. And a lot of it is about that great day in Harlem, a photo that Art Kane took in 1958. And there’s even a key moment in the film with Benny Golson. He wrote the song Whisper Not. He was a key member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, and we hear him with Al Jarreau on the 2009 release.
Let’s look at some stories from that time and date. Just go to the website WZUM.org and go to the Jazz Notes page. The program you’re listening to is about the Pittsburgh Jazz Festival and a great day in Harlem. We also have links to the film “A Great Day in Harlem,” a documentary by Jean Bach, and also an extended version of that documentary which has about three hours of interviews, including some with great Pittsburghers, and also features bassist and photographer Milt Hinton and Scoville Brown and Gerry Mulligan. Back. Let’s listen to a little bit of that. The segment starts with Art Kane himself talking about the photo from a great day in Harlem – just a taste of what you can find this week at the link to THE SCENE on WZUM – celebrating “A Great Day in Harlem.”
We also share words from Art Kane from Jean Bach’s 1994 documentary A Great Day in Harlem. Also featured are bassist (and photographer) Milt Hinton, as well as musicians Gerry Mulligan and Scoville Browne and Milt’s wife Mona Hilton – she was recruited to operate a movie camera and capture much of the day. Milt Hinton’s home videos from that day formed the basis of the award-winning documentary.
The photo includes Art Blakey, Roy Eldridge, Maxine Sullivan and Mary Lou Williams from Pittsburgh.
The Scene – Thursdays at 6 p.m., Fridays at 12 p.m., Saturdays at 12 p.m., Sundays at 5 p.m. on WZUM.
