Herman Leonard: Jazz
Something I don’t really talk about, digitally or in person, is my love of jazz. I actually love most genres of music, and my collection is as diverse as it is stolen, but there is no form of music that I love as much or as philosophically as jazz. Well, maybe J.S. Bach’s fugues, but that’s different.
Jazz was America’s first real musical creation (yes, I know all about the Blues), in that some folks took instruments that had been around for a long time and did something that no one in history had ever done with them. They created a form of music that spoke directly to, and was created from, the world around them. But it was bigger than just their lives, and blossomed into a language, a philosophy, a mathematical realm, and a binding agent for cultures that had been fighting for ages. Jazz was like a lightning bolt of pure emotional expression that these men and women had somehow managed to grab hold of and pour through their instruments.
And during that time there was a man who was there to capture the beauty and heartbreak of jazz learning how to be itself. His name was Herman Leonard, he was a magical photographer, and a master of contrast. On August 14 he died at the age of 87, leaving behind a collection of beautiful moments in the history of jazz and those who created it.









