Customer Reviews

Blue Note The Jazz Photography of Francis Wolff

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This is the finest collection of Jazz Photography ever assembled! If you're a fan of jazz, or Blue Note Records, you must own this book. As a co-owner of Blue Note, Francis Wolff had the opportunity to arrest time with his lens while the titans of jazz created quintessential music. All the faces you would expect are here, Thelonious Monk, Miles, Coltrane, etc. Yet so are others whose names have been unfairly excluded from the roster of jazz immortals, men like Hank Mobley, Sonny Clark, Lee Morgan and many more. This collection is tastefully assembled, carefully balancing a trove of color and black & white prints with aesthetic perfection. Its 176 pages are bursting with images that inebriate the eyes; many are published here for the first time. Along the way, written snapshots built on the visual perspective. You can hear the music pouring from these images. You can feel the excitement of it's genesis. The musicians were comfortable with Wolff and his lens. He captured their essence in a way that no other could. Pick this up before it goes out of print.

Even if you haven't heard the name Francis Wolff before you have probably seen many of his photos already. They can be found on many Blue Note albums. Some of them also became classics on their own. Francis Wolff is the co-founder of the Blue Note record label. Before becoming a full-time producer by the end of the Sixties, he spent a lot of his time taking photos of the artists while they were recording. All these photos are taken with a sort of simple equipment (just a camera and one flash) without posing. The photos were taken while the musicians were playing or composing of resting. There is an enormous depth and clarity in the pictures and you can nearly sense the personalities of the musicians. This collection of Wolff's photography is a must for every fan of classical photography and, of course, it's a must for die-hard Blue Note fans.

I had thought that this was the paperback version of The Blue Note Years: The Jazz Photography of Francis Wolff but as it says in the book this is another selection of Francis Wolf photos, most unseen, too. If you've ever seen a Blue Note LP cover from the fifties and sixties you'll know what Wolff's photos look like: mostly photographed in Rudy Van Gelder's darkened recording studio, so the musicians leap at you because there are hardly any other visual distractions, their bodies have a texture that fades into the dark background.

I particularly like the photos because Wolff doesn't make his presence felt, no one is looking at the camera, these guys were captured socking out another cracking Blue Note session. With these photos you can see what the BN sound looked like and nicely, the captions list the titles to the sessions so if you have any of the recordings you'll be able to add an extra dimension to the listening experience.

The book looks pretty cool, too. The black and whites are printed in four color to give them a solid appearance but surprisingly the screen is only 150 though the printing gives the impression that 175 or 200dpi might have been used on the matt art paper. The contemporary looking layout enhances the images. There are several musicians who get more than one photo but oddly only one of the great Rudy Van Gelder. To my mind he is the one responsible for the success of the label over the years. Maybe the first book had more of him at work.

Overall a beautiful book of jazz photos and it certainly goes well with Blue Note: Album Cover Artby Graham Marsh where designer Reid Miles does wonders with Francis Wolff's camera creativity.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

The book features stunning examples of classic photos of some of my favorite jazz artists by Francis Wolff including some I hadn't seen elsewhere. However, the cover seemed cheap/flimsy. In fact the cover separated from the pages in transit. Even at this price, I'd shy away from this one in favor of the more expensive hard cover unless you're planning on cutting out the photos any way.

For all the Jazz Lovers, this is a beautiful photographic collection of all the greatest musicians of this trade; moreover, it's the look from an 'insider' to get a glimpse of almost intimacy with the artists at work. Excellent quality, both photographic and 'sentimental': recommended!