Jazz Life
by William Claxton
Page Extent: 600 pages
Book Size: 240 x 336 mm (Height x Width x Depth)
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In 1960, photographer William Claxton and noted musicologist Joachim Berendt traveled the United States hot on the trail of jazz. Through music halls and marching bands, side streets and subways, they sought to document this living, breathing, beating musical phenomenon that enraptured America across social, economic, and racial lines. The result of Claxton and Berendt's collaboration was Jazzlife, much sought after by collectors and now revived in this fresh TASCHEN volume. From coast to coast, from unknown street performers to legends of the genre, this defining jazz journey explores just what made up this most original of American art forms. In New Orleans and New York, in St. Louis, Biloxi, Jackson, and beyond, Claxton's rapturous yet tender images and accompanying texts examine jazz's regional diversity as much as its pervasive vitality and soul. They show the music makers and the many spaces and people this music touched, from funeral parades to concert stages, from an elderly trumpet player to kids who hung from windows to catch a glimpse of a passing band. With images of Charlie Parker, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Muddy Waters, Gabor Szabo, Dave Brubeck, Stan Getz, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, and many more, this is as much a compelling slice of history as it is a loving personal tribute.
Born in Pasadena, California, Claxton's works included a book of photographs of Steve McQueen, and Jazz Life, a book of photographs depicting jazz artists in the 1960s. He was most noted for his photography of jazz musicians including Chet Baker. Claxton also photographed celebrities and models.[1] He married model Peggy Moffitt in 1960 and had one son, Christopher M. Claxton, born in 1973. Claxton died on October 11, 2008 of complications from congestive heart failure, one day before his 81st birthday.[2] In 1967, he created the film Basic Black, a work that is credited as the first "fashion video" and is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The music for the film, using a Moog synthesizer, was composed by award-winning artist David Lucas.[3][4