Art Kane Harlem 1958 Upcoming Panel Event

One of the most iconic photographs in jazz was shot on August 4, 1958 outside a brownstone at 17 East 126^th Street between Fifth and Madison Avenue in Harlem. The photo was shot by Art Kane and appeared in Esquire Magazine in January of 1959. Somehow Kane managed to gather 57 important jazz musicians to pose that day, including Dizzy Gillespie, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins, Mary Lou Williams and Count Basie. The photo later became a key plot point in Steven Spielberg’s film The Terminal in which Tom Hanks (as Viktor Navorski) comes to the U.S. in search of Benny Golson’s autograph.

Sixty years later Art Kane’s son Jonathan, himself a photographer and musician, wrote the story of this celebrated and widely imitated photograph in a recently published book titled Art Kane Harlem 1958. The Music Division has invited Jonathan Kane and saxophonist-composer Benny Golson to spend an evening talking about this remarkable photograph and I’ve been asked to moderate this panel discussion. Click on the flyer below to read more about the event and make reservations via the panel’s Eventbrite page, or simply show up. We hope you will.