No Room For Squares

I was saddened to hear that friend and amazing musician Davey Adkins passed away  last night.    This image was made at possibly Davey’s last performance at the Jazz Kitchen in Indy.

This is the limited edition poster, produced for the 2012 Indy Jazz Fest.  It’s features the legendary trombonist, composer and band leader, Slide Hampton.  Prints signed by the photographer may be purchased for $12.00 + $3.00 shipping.  Please reach out to me here and I’ll get one out to you.

I made this image several years ago for a Northwest Airlines publication called World Traveler.  They were doing a multi-page feature on Jazz in Indy.    Musician Rob Dixon is standing on a ledge with a 20′ drop to his right.  In an effort to place him where I needed him in the frame, I was shooting off a tall ladder.  I had been searching for a location to get some of the downtown buildings in the background and found this spot.  I shot this image of Rob in the late afternoon and another image later in the late evening to catch the lights on in the buildings.  This was my first of many projects for this publication.

This image of Cedar Walton was made at the world famous Jazz Showcase in Chicago.  Thanks to Cedar for giving me a few minutes to make the image.

In the early 1960s, Cedar along with the late, great Freddie Hubbard joined Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, where he played along side another legendary player, Wayne Shorter.   Walton left the Messengers in 1964 and by the late 1960s was part of the house rhythm section at Prestige Records, where in addition to releasing his own recordings, he recorded with Sonny Criss, Pat Martino, Eric Kloss, and Charles McPherson. For a year, he served as Abbey Lincoln‘s accompanist, and recorded with Lee Morgan from 1966 to 1968.

From the 1980s until the present day, Walton has remained active, and many of his compositions have been adopted as jazz standards, including “Firm Roots”, “Bolivia” and “Cedar’s Blues”. “Bolivia” is perhaps Walton’s best known composition, while one of his oldest is “Fantasy in D”, was recorded under the title “Ugetsu” by Art Blakey in 1963.

In January 2010, he was inducted as a member of the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters.