Monday, September 30, 2013

☞ REMEMBER: A Great Day in Harlem Revisited



There probably have been several post written about Art Kane's famous Great Day in Harlem photo taken in 1958 but we like updating the story to show folks what the block actually looks like today.  The top photo is probably the most famous post-jazz era portrait of the many musicians who had their start uptown in front of a stoop on 17 East 126th Street along with some of the local kids on the block.

Gordon Parks took another famous photo almost 4 decades later in 1996 that shows a stark image of what had survive of Harlem and its great Jazz artists along with a single boy from the block of the original photo.   We walked by this house located between Fifth and Madison Avenue over the weekend and felt the spirit of the all that once congregated on this historic front stoop that great day and marveled at the many changes that this brownstone had gone through in its many decades.
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7 comments:

  1. westsiderSeptember 30, 2013 at 9:55 AM

    Great post.

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  2. GregSeptember 30, 2013 at 10:19 AM

    Could they put the cornice back please, the building looks stark naked without it.

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  3. DanoSeptember 30, 2013 at 11:31 AM

    Nice stuff, but one factual error: the musicians didn't neessarily live uptown. Some, in fact, didn't live in New York.

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  4. UlyssesSeptember 30, 2013 at 12:20 PM

    That would make sense for much of the great figures of the Renaissance years ended up leaving Harlem and the jazz scene moved to midtown by the depression years.

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  5. DavidSeptember 30, 2013 at 1:31 PM

    If I hear one more set of nonsense about "gentrification" etc I will immediately send this set of photos.

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  6. Jonathan GillOctober 1, 2013 at 11:55 AM

    There's a wonderful version of this project called "A Great Day in Hip Hop" (I believe the day was captured on video). And there's a downtown version called "A Great Day in Klezmer."

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  7. Jonathan GillOctober 1, 2013 at 11:58 AM

    I love seeing Count Basie sitting on the stoop with the kids. And check out Roy Eldridge and Dizzy Gillespie clowning around at far right.

    By the way, there's a wonderful version of this project called "A Great Day in Hip Hop (captured on video) and a downtown version called "A Great Day in Klezmer.

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