-A monumental publication, Jazz is the definitive look at nearly thirty
years of jazz from a man and his camera, who enjoyed unique access as
the history of jazz unfolded "This is the best, most comprehensive jazz
book I've ever seen - and I've bought them all." -Terry O'Neill "In
these photographs... the music plays on, never dated, always right on
time." - John Leland, New York Times "Williams was an important part of
jazz history, and this book belongs in the collection of anyone
interested in the history of America's greatest art form." - DownBeat
From the smoky backstage dressing rooms of New York and Chicago's
pioneering jazz clubs to the acclaimed Jazz festivals that flourished to
enthrall legions of fans, Ted Williams' camera captured the intimacy and
the wizardry of Jazz's greats as they perfected their art over more than
three decades from the 1940s-1970s. From his unique access and
perspective, Williams diligently accumulated a unique and largely unseen
archive that documented some of the greatest musicians of the 20th
century, the jazz and blues musicians who themselves not only inspired
the greats such as Frank Sinatra but fired the aspirations and tastes of
a new generation; The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Eric
Clapton among them. Williams caught them in the act of exploring and
defining their careers and music - while ensuring impassioned audiences
and atmospheric venues remained inseparable from the iconic history he
was chronicling. From Miles Davis to Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie to
Stan Getz and Sarah Vaughan, Williams' camera witnessed genius at work,
rest and play, with an honesty and clarity that few photographers could
replicate. When Williams died in 2009 at the age of 84, he left nearly
100,000 prints and negatives behind - many of which have never been seen
before. Jazz, the first book dedicated to the jazz photography of Ted
Williams, will highlight hundreds of these unseen jazz images and will
be captioned throughout by his own memories along with commentary from
some of the leading jazz historians and journalists working today.
Artists include Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Ray
Charles, Charlie Parker, Sarah Vaughan, Thelonious Monk, Dinah
Washington, Duke Ellington, Count Bassie, Billie Holiday, Ella
Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Tony Bennett, Mahalia Jackson, Buddy Rich,
Julian "Cannonball" Adderly, Art Blakey, Benny Goodman, Charles Mingus,
Quincy Jones, Sonny Rollins, Muddy Waters, Max Roach, Woody Herman and
Wynton Marsalis
