Jazz Greats: Photographs from the Bank of America Collection

The images gathered in Jazz Greats: Classic Photographs from the Bank of America Collection offer an overview of music and movement captured with professional accuracy and acumen. This selection of black-and-white prints spans three generations and speaks to the histories of individuals and occurrences, in front of and behind the camera.

Jazz is historically in the forefront of African American music for its honesty, sensuality, and improvisational vigor. Chuck Stewart’s portraits of iconic saxophone players Eric Dolphy and John Coltrane capture sensitive and sobering moments off stage. A contemplative mood permeates Ed (Eduard) van der Elsken’s dark 1958 portrait of Louis Armstrong in formal attire, his trumpet lowered, taken during his performance at the Newport Jazz Festival that year.

The exhibition features 33 photographs by fifteen photographers, spanning primarily from the 1920s to the 1980s, and depicts artists from various genres in music and dance. Many are legends of the uniquely American art forms of jazz and modern dance; some are simply members of local communities entertaining their neighbors.