Jazz Day: The Making of a Famous Photograph

Written by Roxane Orgill and Francis Vallejo

Narrated by Robin Miles

What happens when you invite as many jazz musicians as you can to pose for a photo in 1950s Harlem? Playful verse and glorious artwork capture an iconic moment for American jazz. When Esquire magazine planned an issue to salute the American jazz scene in 1958, graphic designer Art Kane pitched a crazy idea: how about gathering a group of beloved jazz musicians and photographing them? He didn't own a good camera, didn't know if any musicians would show up, and insisted on setting up the shoot in front of a Harlem brownstone. Could he pull it off? In a captivating collection of poems, Roxane Orgill steps into the frame of Harlem 1958, bringing to life the musicians' mischief and quirks, their memorable style, and the vivacious atmosphere of a Harlem block full of kids on a hot summer's day. Francis Vallejo's vibrant, detailed, and wonderfully expressive paintings do loving justice to the larger-than-life quality of jazz musicians of the era. Includes bios of several of the fifty-seven musicians, an author's note, sources, a bibliography, and a foldout of Art Kane's famous photograph.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 27, 2017
• ISBN: 9781501950117

Roxane Orgill

Roxane Orgill is the author of a number of notable books for children and young adults, including the recent Footwork: The Story of Fred and Adele Astaire. She has also been an award-winning music critic whose reviews and articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and Billboard. She lives in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Reviews for Jazz Day

[michelleannlib · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was great! It will definitely end up on "best of 2016" lists!

[melodyreads · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great book - save for older kids/adults/musicians

[paula2childrenslib · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Good for school lessons, to read aloud one or multiple, incorporate with music and history. Wonderful illustrations.

[abigailadams26 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Music historian and children's author Roxanne Orgill takes a look at the creation of the famous photograph, "Harlem 1958," in which fifty-seven jazz musicians gathered in Harlem for a photo shoot for a special supplement of Esquire Magazine, on 'The Golden Age of Jazz.' Using mostly free-form poetry, with a few more formal poems as well, Orgill chronicles the process in which graphic designer Art Kane gathered so many Jazz luminaries for the shoot that day, as well as the interactions amongst the musicians, and between the musicians and the neighborhood boys gathered to watch the proceedings.An enjoyable and informative book, one which highlights a moment in history about which I knew very little, Jazz Days: The Making of a Famous Photograph is creative history, offering a poetic depiction of the people involved in one iconic mid-20th-century picture. I appreciated the information made available, both in the poems themselves, and in the detailed after-matter, which included a general history of the making of the photograph, a mini-biography of each musician depicted in the poems, and a long list of further reading material. The poems themselves were sometimes a little uneven - this is the author's first attempt at writing in this form - but the stories they told were always involving. Recommended to anyone looking for picture-books featuring music, musicians, and/or Jazz.