A image by photographer Howard Leonard taken in 1948 captures the friendship between jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington. In the Harlem Renaissance years, all of Harlem's great performers would attract the mostly white crowds uptown to see the entertainment phenomenon of the day but riots and deteriorating conditions had many establishments move to midtown by the 1950s. The famous Cotton Club would move down to Broadway by 1937 but this is not that venue from what can be gathered from the interior murals painted on the walls. Does anyone know where this photo was taken?
I don't know Ulysses, I always thought it was here in Harlem. I will see if I can get some information..I always thought it was the Cotton Club...or Savoy.
ReplyDeleteThe second Cotton Club had murals similar to the famous nudes up at Cafe Des Artistes but with black models instead. As for the Savoy, the interior was always recognizable by the metallic, Art Deco curvilinear lines found within.
ReplyDeleteThis is from a New York Times article dated Nov. 25, 2009:
ReplyDeleteA Herman Leonard photograph of Ella Fitzgerald performing at the New York nightclub Downbeat in 1948. Watching rapturously are Duke Ellington, center, and Benny Goodman, in glasses behind Ellington.
Thanks Bird !!!
ReplyDeleteIs that Jack Teagarden leaning forward to Goodman's left?
ReplyDeleteYou can find the names of the others, or at least some of them, in the picture here, which is part of the series from the same night:
http://www.hermanleonard.com/catalogue/f/content/ELF03_large.html
I think in this one it's George Shearing on the right, right? Then again, this interview with the photographer
http://www.hermanleonard.com/catalogue/f/content/ELF03_large.html
identifies him as the music publisher Jack Robbins (one respondent thinks it's Richard Rodgers...)
Stan Hasselgard, the man to Ellington's left, was a Swedish protege of Goodman who was killed later that year at the age of 26 in a car crash.