''A Great Day in Harlem'' or ''Harlem 1958'' is a black-and-white photograph of 57 jazz musicians in Harlem, New York, taken by freelance photographer Art Kane for ''

Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...

'' magazine on August 12, 1958. The idea for the photo came from ''Esquire''s art director, Robert Benton, rather than Kane. However, after being given the commission, it seems the latter was responsible for choosing the location for the shoot. The subjects are shown at 17 East 126th Street, between Fifth and

Madison Avenue Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States, that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square (at 23rd Street) to meet the southbound Harlem River Drive at 142nd Stre ...

, where police had temporarily blocked off traffic. Published as the centerfold of the January 1959 ("Golden Age of Jazz") issue of ''Esquire'', the image was captured with a Hasselblad camera, and earned Kane his first Art Directors Club of New York gold medal for photography. It has been called "the most iconic photograph in jazz history". The scene portrayed is something of an anachronism, as by 1957 Harlem was no longer the "hotbed" of jazz it had been in the 1940s, and had "forfeited its place in sun" to

52nd Street 52nd Street is a -long one-way street traveling west to east across Midtown Manhattan, New York City. A short section of it was known as the city's center of jazz performance from the 1930s to the 1950s. Jazz center Following the repeal of ...

Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildin ...

. Many musicians who were formerly resident in the area had already moved to

middle-class The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Comm ...

parts of New York, or did so shortly thereafter. Kane himself was not that certain who would turn up on the day, as ''Esquire'' staff had merely issued a general invitation through the local musicians' union, recording studios, music writers, and nightclub owners. In 2018, a book was published to mark the 60th anniversary of the event, with forewords by Quincy Jones and

Benny Golson Benny Golson (born January 25, 1929) is an American bebop/hard bop jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and arranger. He came to prominence with the big bands of Lionel Hampton and Dizzy Gillespie, more as a writer than a performer, before launch ...

, and an introduction by Kane's son,

Jonathan Jonathan may refer to: *Jonathan (name), a masculine given name Media * ''Jonathan'' (1970 film), a German film directed by Hans W. Geißendörfer * ''Jonathan'' (2016 film), a German film directed by Piotr J. Lewandowski * ''Jonathan'' (2018 ...

. Following the death of

in September 2024,

Sonny Rollins Walter Theodore "Sonny" Rollins (born September 7, 1930) is an American jazz tenor saxophonist who is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. In a seven-decade career, he has recorded over sixty albums as a ...

is the last living adult musician featured in the photograph.

Musicians in the photograph

* Red Allen * Buster Bailey * Count Basie * Emmett Berry *

Art Blakey Arthur Blakey (October 11, 1919 – October 16, 1990) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He was also known as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina after he converted to Islam for a short time in the late 1940s. Blakey made a name for himself in the 1 ...

* Lawrence Brown *

Scoville Browne Scoville "Toby" Browne (October 13, 1909, Atlanta – October 3, 1994) was an American jazz reedist. Browne played in the late 1920s with Junie Cobb's band and the Midnight Ramblers in Chicago; in 1931–32 he played saxophone and clari ...

* Buck Clayton *

Bill Crump William Henry Howes Crump (13 March 1903 – 22 January 1994) was an Anglican bishop in the third quarter of the 20th century. Born in London, Ontario on 13 March 1903 and educated at the University of Western Ontario, he was ordained in 1927. H ...

* Vic Dickenson * Roy Eldridge *

Art Farmer Arthur Stewart Farmer (August 21, 1928 – October 4, 1999) was an American jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player. He also played flumpet, a trumpet–flugelhorn combination especially designed for him. He and his identical twin brother, double ...

* Bud Freeman *

Dizzy Gillespie John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy Eldridge but addi ...

* Tyree Glenn *

Sonny Greer William Alexander "Sonny" Greer (December 13, c. 1895 – March 23, 1982) was an American jazz drummer and vocalist, best known for his work with Duke Ellington. Biography Greer was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, United States, and play ...

* Johnny Griffin * Gigi Gryce * Coleman Hawkins * J. C. Heard *

Jay C. Higginbotham J. (Jack) C. Higginbotham (May 11, 1906 – May 26, 1973) was an American jazz trombonist. His playing was robust and swinging. Biography He was born in Social Circle, Georgia, United States, and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. In the 1930s ...

* Milt Hinton * Chubby Jackson * Hilton Jefferson * Osie Johnson *

Hank Jones Henry Jones Jr. (July 31, 1918 – May 16, 2010) was an American jazz pianist, bandleader, arranger, and composer. Critics and musicians described Jones as eloquent, lyrical, and impeccable. In 1989, The National Endowment for the Arts honored ...

Jo Jones Jonathan David Samuel Jones (October 7, 1911 – September 3, 1985) was an American jazz drummer. A band leader and pioneer in jazz percussion, Jones anchored the Count Basie Orchestra rhythm section from 1934 to 1948. He was sometimes k ...

* Jimmy Jones * Taft Jordan * Max Kaminsky * Gene Krupa * Eddie Locke * Marian McPartland *

Charles Mingus Charles Mingus Jr. (April 22, 1922 – January 5, 1979) was an American jazz upright bassist, pianist, composer, bandleader, and author. A major proponent of collective improvisation, he is considered to be one of the greatest jazz musicians and ...

Miff Mole Irving Milfred Mole, known professionally as Miff Mole (March 11, 1898 – April 29, 1961) was an American jazz trombonist and band leader. He is generally considered one of the greatest jazz trombonists and credited with creating "the first dist ...

* Thelonious Monk * Gerry Mulligan * Oscar Pettiford *

Rudy Powell Rudy Powell (later Musheed Karweem) (October 28, 1907 – October 30, 1976) was an American jazz reed player. Born in New York City, United States, Powell learned piano and violin while young and then clarinet and saxophone. In the late 1920s, he ...

* Luckey Roberts *

* Jimmy Rushing * Pee Wee Russell * Sahib Shihab * Horace Silver * Zutty Singleton * Stuff Smith * Rex Stewart * Maxine Sullivan * Joe Thomas * Wilbur Ware * Dicky Wells * George Wettling * Ernie Wilkins * Mary Lou Williams * Lester Young

Children in the picture

Count Basie, having grown tired of standing, sat down on the curb, and gradually a dozen children followed. Most of the children were neighborhood residents, although the second child from the right, Taft Jordan Jr., had accompanied his father, Taft Jordan, to the photo session. The photography crew was already having trouble directing the adults, and the presence of the children added to the chaos: one of the children appearing in the window kept yelling at a sibling on the curb; another kept playing with Basie's hat; Taft Jordan Jr. had been scuffling with the older child seated to his left. Ultimately, Art Kane realized that any further attempt to organize the proceedings would be futile, and he decided to incorporate the subjects' actions.

Musicians not in the main photograph

Notable absentees were

Louis Armstrong Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several era ...

, John Coltrane, and Miles Davis (all touring),

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based ...

(in Milwaukee),

Benny Goodman Benjamin David Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American clarinetist and bandleader known as the "King of Swing". From 1936 until the mid-1940s, Goodman led one of the most popular swing big bands in the United States. His co ...

(in Los Angeles), and Ella Fitzgerald (recording in Chicago). Ruby Braff, Billie Holiday,

"Philly" Joe Jones Joseph Rudolph "Philly Joe" Jones (July 15, 1923 – August 30, 1985) was an American jazz drummer. Biography Early career As a child, Jones appeared as a featured tap dancer on ''The Kiddie Show'' on the Philadelphia radio station WIP. He was ...

, Max Roach, and Ben Webster were also not present. Willie "The Lion" Smith had sat down to rest on a nearby stoop when the photo chosen for publication was taken, but appears in unused frames. Ronnie Free, Mose Allison and Charlie Rouse arrived too late to participate in the ''Esquire'' shoot, but they were photographed by

alongside Mary Lou Williams, Lester Young and Oscar Pettiford.

Film

Jean Bach Jean Bach (September 27, 1918 – May 27, 2013) was an American documentary film director, radio producer and jazz aficionado. Bach directed the 1994 documentary, '' A Great Day in Harlem'', based on a 1958 photograph of the same name. Bach was ...

, a radio producer of New York, recounted the story behind the photograph in her 1994 documentary film, ''

A Great Day in Harlem ''A Great Day in Harlem'' or ''Harlem 1958'' is a black-and-white photograph of 57 jazz musicians in Harlem, Manhattan, Harlem, New York, taken by freelance photographer Art Kane for ''Esquire (magazine), Esquire'' magazine on August 12, 1958. ...

''. This incorporated

8 mm film 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. In mathematics 8 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2. * a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of the ...

footage taken by bassist Milt Hinton on the day of the shoot. The film was nominated in 1995 for an Academy Award for Documentary Feature. Bach described how, upon the film's release, a number of similar photographs employed the "A Great Day in..." theme.

Hugh Hefner Hugh Marston Hefner (April 9, 1926 – September 27, 2017) was an American magazine publisher. He was the founder and editor-in-chief of ''Playboy'' magazine, a publication with revealing photographs and articles which provoked charges of obsc ...

assembled

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

-area musicians for "A Great Day in Hollywood" in conjunction with a sneak preview of ''A Great Day in Harlem''. Soon afterwards, "A Great Day in Philadelphia" included musicians such as Jimmy Heath,

and Ray Bryant. During the filming of ''

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...

'' (1996), musicians including Jay McShann posed for "A Great Day in Kansas City". A multi-page supplement in '' The Star-Ledger'' featured "A Great Day in Jersey", while a Dutch photograph was titled "A Great Day in Haarlem". In 1998, "Great Day in St Paul" was taken by Byron Nelson. The trend spread to other styles of music, with Houston

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

musicians posing for "A Great Day in Houston". "A Great Day in Hip Hop" was followed by XXL's "The Greatest Day in Hip Hop". An Atlanta radio station gathered musicians for "A Great Day in Doo-Wop". A

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

cellist, inspired by both the original photograph and the film, assembled

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...

ians for "A Great Day in New York". '' The New York Post'' ran "A Great Day in Spanish Harlem". The photograph was a key plot point in

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Spie ...

's 2004 film '' The Terminal''. The film starred Tom Hanks as Viktor Navorski, a character who comes to the United States in search of

's autograph, with which he can complete his deceased father's collection of autographs from the musicians pictured in the photo. Golson himself made a cameo appearance in the film.

Homages

* 1998: '' A Great Day in Hip Hop'' — for this photograph by Gordon Parks, commissioned by '' XXL'' magazine, 177 hip-hop artists gathered on the stoop of number 17 as well as those of the buildings on either side. * 2004: ''A Great Day in London'' — in an initiative inspired by Art Kane's photograph, 50 writers of Caribbean, Asian and African descent making a significant contribution to contemporary British literature gathered to be photographed on the steps of the British Museum in London. * 2005: ''A Great Day in Atlanta'' — Taken by

Amanda Marsalis Amanda Marsalis is an American film director and photographer. Career Photographic career Marsalis attended California College of Arts and Crafts where she studied with Larry Sultan and Jim Goldberg. Directing career Marsalis made her direct ...

and commissioned by

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

, more than 50 members of Atlanta's

hip hop scene Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

gathered at the

Jeremiah S. Gilbert House The Jeremiah S. Gilbert House is a National Register of Historic Places listings in Fulton County, Georgia, NRHP-listed property in the neighborhood of Perkerson, Atlanta, United States. It is one of the city's List of oldest structures in Atlan ...

to recreate Art Kane's photograph. * 2007: ''A Great Day on Eldridge St.'' — inspired by Kane's photograph, Yale Strom corralled a score of leading klezmer musicians who gathered on the steps of the Eldridge St. Synagogue to commemorate the 30 years of the klezmer revival. * 2008: ''A Great Day in Paris'' — more than 50 musicians from the US who were then residing in Paris, France, took part in a historic photo session. The project was initiated by Ricky Ford, who has said: "2008 was the 50th anniversary of the photo ''A Great Day in Harlem'' that Art Kane had taken in 1958 of all those jazz musicians in Harlem. I thought it would be a good idea to do the same thing with the American jazz musicians that lived in France. It took a year to prepare. Musicians from all over France came. Philippe Lévy-Stab took a group photo on the steps of Montmartre and Michka Saäl started to work on a documentary film of those musicians." * 2008: ''A Great Day in Hoxton'' — a photograph by Peter Williams, commissioned by '' Straight No Chaser'' magazine and featuring prominent music business faces such as Gilles Peterson and James Lavelle alongside designers, fashion professionals, writers, dancers and fellow photographers. * 2013: ''Een Grootse Dag in Kootwijk'' — in the spirit of ''XXL''s picture ''A Great Day in Hip Hop'', Ghamte Schmidt and Andreas van de Laar gathered the Dutch hip hop scene at the monumental Radio Kootwijk for a group portrait. * 2016: ''A Great Day in Hackney'' — in the spirit of Art Kane's photograph, British jazz musicians assembled to celebrate the 30th anniversary of

The Premises Studios The Premises Studios is a music studio complex based in Haggerston in London Borough of Hackney, London. The studio complex contains 10 commercial rehearsal studio spaces, one acoustic recording studio, one mixing studio, and various private lon ...

in Hackney. * 2018: ''A Great Day in Hollywood'' — 47 black writers, showrunners, actors, and producers from more than 20 Netflix original shows, films and documentaries came together to create "A Great Day in Hollywood". Taken to promote Netflix's Strong Black Lead initiative, Netflix also released a minute long video directed by Lacey Duke and narrated by Caleb McLaughlin (

Stranger Things ''Stranger Things'' is an American science fiction horror drama television series created by the Duffer Brothers, who also serve as showrunners and are executive producers along with Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen. Produced by Monkey Massacre Prod ...

). * 2021: ''A Great Day in Roxbury's Highland Park'' — Organized by Mark Schafer, Paige Cook, and JD Garcia, with support from the Unitarian Universalist Urban Ministry (UUUM), the Roxbury Historical Society, and Historic Boston, Inc., 77 elders of the historically Black neighborhood of Highland Park in Roxbury, Massachusetts gathered on the stairs of two local brownstone buildings on the morning of November 6, 2021, for a photo that was taken by Roxbury photographer Hakim Raquib. A half-hour documentary on the making of the "A Great Day in Roxbury's Highland Park" photograph, by Bithyah Israel and commissioned by the UUUM, was premiered at Paige Academy in Roxbury on November 13, 2022. * 2022: ''A Great Day in Animation'' — 54 Black animation professionals, taken by Randy Shropshire with Jeff Vespa as production lead. The idea for the photo came from Marlon West. "Nickelodeon Recreates Iconic ‘Great Day in Harlem’ Photograph With 54 Black Animation Professionals (EXCLUSIVE)"
/ref>

Notes

References

External links

* Goodyear, Sarah
"Stoop Summit — How a Harlem brownstone was immortalized when the living legends of jazz assembled there for an iconic photograph"
, ''

New York Daily News The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...

'', August 12, 2016 (including interactive photo leading to performance clips by each musician). Retrieved August 29, 2016. * ''A Great Day in Harlem'' on the website of the Art Kane Foundation. * ** ''Guardian'' photo feature based on ''Art Kane: Harlem 1958''
"Jazz's Most Iconic Photo is Half a Century Old"
by Alan Kurtz
Jazz.com

('' The New York Times'', September 25, 2018)
An interactive version of ''A Great Day in Harlem'' showing the musicians' names
{{DEFAULTSORT:Great Day in Harlem, A Jazz publications 1958 works 1958 in American music 1958 in art 1958 in New York City 1950s photographs Black-and-white photographs Harlem Photographs of the United States Works originally published in Esquire (magazine)