All that jazz

<a href="http://www.terrycryer.com/photographs.html">This guy</a>

, Terry Cryer, lives near Leeds in England, and just happens to have taken

some excellent photos of American jazz and blues musicians back in the late

50s (plus great reportage from Yorkshire, Moscow and Egypt). He just told me

about the Big Bill Broonzy photos, which you can see here. After the shoot, he

had a few drinks with the band's bassist, who fell asleep at the wheel on the

way back from Manchester to Leeds. THe car went through a hedge and

rolled - Cryer broke his back. <p>

He had an assigment a few weeks later, and persuaded the doctors to make a

new body cast ,which allowed him to hold a camera. Unfortunately his fingers

were still paralysed, so he fashioned a tube, fixed to the shutter release, with

a rubber bulb at the end - biting on the bulb released the shutter:

"unfortunately, I lost a lot of shots, because the musicians in the front kept

falling over laughing, watching me try to use this rig..." <p>

Cryer apparently won industry awards for his printing - I''ve never seen

anything quite like them, they have a vintage look which I think he achieves

by printing through a stocking...

<a href="http://www.terrycryer.com/gallerypages/millie.html

">Aunt Millie tries a jazz cigarette</a>

'Not into Jazz, nevertheless, great photos yet tragic story

Thanks for the great link. mary

...fortunately, not that tragic, he regained full use of his fingers, and is now an

extremely chipper fellow.

Thanks for the link. Great jazz photos, but great jazz photos are not uncommon. I enjoyed viewing the more candid shots. I also like that the biography says that after trying the imitation leica, he moved on to a rolleiflex and never looked back. In one of the photos on the same page, he's got at least four cameras on him, possibly more at the bag on his side. That couldn't be good for his back either.

Very cool stuff! Any idea when and where the Big Bill shots were made?

...Great jazz photos, but great jazz photos are not uncommon."... <p>

I agree that the candid work is terrific, but ARE there that many great jazz

photos around? A lot of the photos that look good on sleeves or in books are

merely ok when you see the prints. I actually think Cryer's photos are way

above most music photography - only a few people, maybe Jim Marshall or

David Gahr, seem to have prints with that kind of zing, three-dimensionality,

composition and tone. I think Cryer's work is streets ahead of more celebrated

people such as, eg, Francis Wolff; but obviously his portfolio is narrower. <p>

Big Bill was photographed in Manchester, England (there has to be a milltown

called Manchester in the US, right?), in 1958. I think he died later that year. I

actually listened to his music properly for the first time in the last week - I

always thought he musti've been a bland folkie, because of the people who

rate him. I was wrong, his music is really tough.

You got me Pual. I suppose I haven't actually seen to many jazz prints; as you say, more books and cd jackets.

As to Manchester, we in the U.S. have appropriated nearly every name for an English town, square, street, etc. There are many Manchesters here. I live near Cleveland, Ohio, not to be confused with Cleveland, Texas, or any of the other 6 or so Clevelands in the U.S. I grew up on Wellington Drive, which intersected with Warrington, Huntington, Dorchester, Westminster, Chadbourne, Bretton Ridge, and Stearns. Though I don't know of one, I'm sure there's a Piccadilly somewhere around here. We have streets named for everything from composers to movie stars to the daughters of the guy who owns the trailer park. We take credit for baseball and apple pie, but we pretty much admit that we stole the rest. (ok, only some of us admit it)

Location: Fairmont Hotel bar, New Orleans on April Fools Day, 2005. The trumpet player was fantastic!<div></div>

'I was wrong, his music is really tough.'

 

Tough is the word! Big Bill Broonzy was a down and gritty Chicago Bluesman, (originally

from Mississipi). The pics had me pulling out my scratchy old vinyl copy of 'Big Bill's Blues',

one of the first blues albums I ever bought, about 1969. The liner notes said he died in

august 58, he had been operated on for cancer in '57 which had cost him his voice, but he

still played guitar. His great songs were recorded in the 30s; 'truckin' little woman', 'When I

been drinking', 'Bull cow Blues' and many more, they still send a chill up the back. A classic

'Just a Dream' had Big Bill meeting the president and shaking his hand, still a dream... It

was tough for a bluesman to make a living in the 50s, so he turned to folk music, and it's

not surprising he performed in Manchester: sadly it was easier for the great blues and jazz

performers to make a living in Europe instead of back home where they were ignored.

Wonderful link Paul, thanks. I had never heard of Cryer. So far, William Claxton has my vote for favorite jazz photographer (I love his Steve McQueen stuff as well).

 

www.williamclaxton.com

I think great jazz photos ARE uncommon. Many music photos are iconic without revealing much about the subjects' individuality. Thanks for the link, Paul...That fellow's work is quite good.

Kirk, you're right, Claxton is perhaps the definitive jazz dude - particularly for

the cool school. And those McQueen shots (for instance, the one that opens

up his website) are sexy as f*ck. A good friend of mine knows Claxton quite

well, and two weeks ago was flown over from London to LA to interview him

for a Japanese design magazine. I was very jealous. Particularly when he

mentioned how the rental car company let him have a Mustang Convertible

for the trip, for the same price as their normal Compact! Definitely too cool for

school... <p>

It was a bit hard for Cryer, though, let's face it. Claxton had Gerry Mulligan,

Chet Baker etc etc as subjects. Cryer had the Chris Barber trad jazz band,

many of them with faces that looked like potatoes... I blame the bad British

diet!

Paul,

 

Thanks for sharing these great photographs with us. There is a book I highly recommend: State of the Blues. The photographer is Jeff Dunas. Published by Aperture Foundation, 1998. Dunas used a Mamiya RZ-67 and a Leica M6.