a minor seventh chord before it was played.
Unfortunately, Ms. Bach had the kind of singing voice that,
according to its source, was better left unheard.
But when Jean was in the audience for a Billie Holiday
performance, the fabled jazz documentarian could identify
the color of Billie's underwear just by listening
to the first song of the first set:
If Billie Holiday opened with Stormy Weather, then her panties
were black lace. But when Billie sang Strange Fruit,
she wore red satin bra and undies.
Being such a jazz enthusiast, it was easy for Ms. Bach
to live for ninety-four productive years.
At the age of seventy-seven, Jean Bach was the producer
of A GREAT DAY IN HARLEM, an award-winning
documentary about sixty jazz luminaries who gathered
in front of a Harlem brownstone for a 1958 photograph
taken by a twenty-three year-old "amateur."
Art Kane, who had never before taken a picture as a professional
before that Great Day, was that photographer.
Having the likes of Thelonius Monk, Charlie Mingus, and Dizzy Gillespie
standing on a stoop amidst a vast pyramid of jazz musicians, was a baptism
of desire for a kid named Kane.
Here are some desirable fruits of his career.
A flag worth saluting
Bob Dylan
Jim Morrison
The Rolling Stones
WHO KILLED DAVEY MOORE
This is Art Kane
The GREAT DAY IN HARLEM hyperlink
rewards the linker with the first ten minutes
of the film.
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