A Great Day in Harlem
Photographer: Art Kane
Date: August 12, 1958
Location: East 126th Street, Harlem, NYC, USA
Photographer Art Kane assembled 57 jazz musicians on the stoop of a brownstone at 17 East 126th Street in Harlem, New York City, for a photograph commissioned by Esquire magazine on August 12, 1958. The gathering included Count Basie, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Mary Lou Williams, Lester Young, Charles Mingus, Art Blakey, Gerry Mulligan, and many others. The resulting image — published in Esquire's January 1959 Jazz issue — became known as 'A Great Day in Harlem.' The story of how the photograph was made was told in a 1994 Oscar-nominated documentary of the same name, directed by Jean Bach. By the time the documentary was released, many of the musicians had died. The photograph is considered one of the most important documents of the golden age of American jazz.
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