MINGUS MINGUS MINGUS!

FOR DAVID STEPHENSON

David Stephenson was a deep friend,

I met him through books.

He came from Carlisle

with that intense and craggy look.

We studied life together,

smoked Full Strength

and sipped Real Ale.

He liked his women big.

I learnt from him

to visit pubs at lunchtimes

to end up pissed in lectures

but, most of all,

to read the letters of Van Gogh,

the diaries of Franz Kafka,

to go inside 

the jazz 

of Ornette Coleman

and Cecil Taylor.

David told me that 

‘Most people are thick’

and, as a socialist of a kind,

I sometimes think he had a point.

I wonder where he is today.

Back across country I surmise,

smoking and looking at the sunrise,

with a fat woman kissing his neck,

listening to Mingus 

and the sky.

KEITH ARMSTRONG

Charles Mingus

Painting is 2ft x 2ft, mixed media on board.

OSCAR!

JOHN COLTRANE

A GREAT DAY IN HARLEM

A Great Day in Harlem or Harlem 1958 is a 1958 black and white group portrait of 57 notable jazz musicians photographed in front of a Brownstone in Harlem, New York City. The photo has remained an important object in the study of the history of jazz.

Art Kane, a freelance photographer working for Esquire magazine, took the picture around 10 a.m. on August 12 in the summer of 1958. The musicians had gathered at 17 East 126th Street, between Fifth and Madison Avenues in Harlem. Esquire published the photo in its January 1959 issue. Kane calls it "the greatest picture of that era of musicians ever taken."

Jean Bach, a radio producer of New York, recounted the story behind it in her 1994 documentary film, A Great Day in Harlem. The film was nominated in 1995 for an Academy Award for Documentary Feature.

As of April 2013, only 4 of the 57 musicians who participated are still living (see starred names in the list below.)

Red Allen

Buster Bailey

Count Basie

Emmett Berry

Art Blakey

Lawrence Brown

Scoville Browne

Buck Clayton

Bill Crump

Vic Dickenson

Roy Eldridge

Art Farmer

Bud Freeman

Dizzy Gillespie

Tyree Glenn

Benny Golson*

Sonny Greer

Johnny Griffin

Gigi Gryce

Coleman Hawkins

J.C. Heard

Jay C. Higginbotham

Milt Hinton

Chubby Jackson

Hilton Jefferson

Osie Johnson

Hank Jones

Jo Jones

Jimmy Jones

Taft Jordan

Max Kaminsky

Gene Krupa

Eddie Locke

Marian McPartland*

Charles Mingus

Miff Mole

Thelonious Monk

Gerry Mulligan

Oscar Pettiford

Rudy Powell

Luckey Roberts

Sonny Rollins*

Jimmy Rushing

Pee Wee Russell

Sahib Shihab

Horace Silver*

Zutty Singleton

Stuff Smith

Rex Stewart

Maxine Sullivan

Joe Thomas

Wilbur Ware

Dickie Wells

George Wettling

Ernie Wilkins

Mary Lou Williams

Lester Young