GME Celebrates International Jazz Day with Hugh Bell: Jazz Portraits and Album Covers
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Billie Holiday, Photographed by Hugh Bell in the mid-1950s. Source: Gartenberg Media Enterprises.
April 30th was declared International Jazz Day by UNESCO in 2011, and has since become the world’s largest celebration of jazz. This year, the city of Tangier, Morocco will serve as the Global Host of International Jazz Day and will anchor its programs around the world. As noted on the organization’s official website:
International Jazz Day brings together communities, schools, artists, historians, academics, and jazz enthusiasts all over the world to celebrate and learn about jazz and its roots, future and impact; raise awareness of the need for intercultural dialogue and mutual understanding; and reinforce international cooperation and communication. Each year on April 30, this international art form is recognized for promoting peace, dialogue among cultures, diversity, and respect for human rights and human dignity; eradicating discrimination; fostering gender equality; and promoting freedom of expression.
In honor of International Jazz Day, GME highlights photographs from the Hugh Bell collection that capture a number of jazz legends from the 1950s through the 1980s.
As noted in our past reflection on Bell’s jazz photos and his influence on the Kamoinge Workshop, his photographs were notable for their candid and intimate style. Dubbed a “poet behind the lens” in Thomas Allen Harris’ 2014 documentary THROUGH A LENS DARKLY: BLACK PHOTOGRAPHERS AND THE EMERGENCE OF A PEOPLE (based on Deborah Willis’ seminal book REFLECTIONS IN BLACK: A HISTORY OF BLACK PHOTOGRAPHERS 1840—PRESENT), Bell had a unique talent for culling visual poetry out of moments — and personalities — big and small. Bell himself noted: “Each picture should have a little message, or a little feeling about something… some little ‘something’ in the photograph that comes alive, tells a story.”
Bell’s photos of jazz legends Billie Holiday, Dave Brubeck, Geri Allen, Gene Krupa, and Dizzy Gillespie speak to his dynamism as an image-maker and his ability to acutely capture the spirit of his subjects. Bell’s technical prowess is similarly evident in the evocative staging and dramatic natural lighting of his portraits.
The vinyl revival has also allowed Bell’s work to find new audiences. In addition to his images of live performers, he was responsible for a number of jazz album covers, visible here:
GME is proud to exclusively manage the photo archive of Hugh Bell. Our mission is to further the artist’s legacy via placement of the collection in a cultural institution, the organization of museum exhibitions, and the licensing of his photographs for documentary films and book publications. For requests related to these initiatives, please contact GME’s Fine Arts Curator David Deitch at david@gartenbergmedia.com.
All photographs © The Estate of Hugh Bell.