Jazz Idiom: Blueprints, Stills, and Frames: The Jazz Photography of Charles L. Robinson [Paperback]

Charles L. Robinson and Al Young (Author), Charles Robinson (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2008

The jazz greats, as photographed on stage and behind the scenes Thirty-nine jazz luminaries are captured in this book, including Julian Cannonball Adderley, Louis Bellson, Ray Brown, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Johnny Hodges, Carmen McRae, Thelonious Monk, Nina Simone, and Anita O Day. Poet Laureate of California Al Young riffs, scats, and bebops his way across the page, providing poetry, anecdotes, and insight into the players and the moments in question. Photographer Charles L. Robinson was a friend to many of the musicians photographed and, as a result, often caught them in moments of candor and intimacy. For a time, he was the official staff photographer of the Monterey Jazz Festival, and while the majority of the shots in this book are from the festival, a number of them are from Bay Area jazz venues. In Robinson s photographs, we see artists rehearsing before a set: Charlie Mingus, goateed and pensive, hunched over a Steinway, phrases dancing in his head. Or the legendary Earl Fatha Hines at the Monterey Jazz Festival, in the groove, the original cool cat in sunglasses (back before Ray Charles was even born) and famous for breaking the bass strings of a piano. We see Muddy Waters and Jimmy Rushing backstage, talking about some time back in the day. We see Milt Jackson and Dizzy Gillespie sharing a joke. When the last blue note of a performance is but a memory, and the smoke cascades up to the beams of a club at two in the morning, Robinson is there.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Born in 1934 and raised in Baltimore, Charles L. Robinson earned a B.A. in biological science as well an M.S. in vocational rehabilitation counseling from California State University, San Francisco. At the invitation of Ralph J. Gleason, Robinson became the staff photographer of the Monterey Jazz Festival for several years. He currently contributes his time to community work in the San Francisco Bay Area and lives in Berkeley with his wife, Sarah. Al Young is the author of more than twenty books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction and has taught writing and literature at Stanford University, UC Santa Cruz, and the University of Michigan. The recipient of Guggenheim, NEA, and Fulbright fellowships, he lives in Berkeley and is presently the Poet Laureate of California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 120 pages
• Publisher: Heyday Books (September 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1597140953
• ISBN-13: 978-1597140959
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #435,709 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A tuxedo of a book, January 7, 2010

By 

Claire Ortalda (Berkeley, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Jazz Idiom: Blueprints, Stills, and Frames: The Jazz Photography of Charles L. Robinson (Paperback)

You know that this elegant celebration of music "gets" jazz because Jazz Idiom: Blueprints, Stills and Frames is jazz-like in both composition and content - from the crisp notes of Charles L. Robinson's photos to the bluesy riffs of Al Young's poetry, from the nostalgia of intimate shots on-stage and back, to the moody ruminations in print by a couple of jazz aficionados/artists who have created a tribute to an art form that's an art form in itself. To quote Dizzy Gillespie, this black-and-white tuxedo of a book is both "valid and jazz-okay."