Sarah Vaughan, New York City, 1949. All Images © Herman Leonard Photography, LLC
“Hot Summer, Cool Jazz,” an exhibition of the work of legendary jazz photographer Herman Leonard, is currently showing at the Robert Mann Gallery in New York City. During his career, Leonard captured the spirit of jazz, America’s classic musical genre, and icons such as Louie Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra. Most of these pieces are black-and-white, silver gelatin prints of images Leonard made at various New York jazz clubs at night; he worked as a freelance magazine photographer during the day. “Hot Summer, Cool Jazz” runs through August 23.
Clifford Brown, NYC, 1954
Dinah Washington, Newport, 1954
More of Herman Leonard’s photography can be seen at the Clinton Library in Little Rock, AR. It’s a great collection of his work, including a couple of superb self portraits from 1953 and the other from 2004.