Herman Leonard: Immortal Images of Jazz Greats: And Great Stories as Well

I’m a big fan of the late Herman Leonard. He took such great pictures both here and in Europe, spanning a career that lasted 70 years, from 1939 until his death in 2010. In his wonderful autobiographical book J

azz, Giants, and Journeys, he chronicles his fascinating life journey

Leonard took gorgeous portraits of Marlon Brando, with whom he travelled the Far East for months in preparation for the film Sayonara, Natalie Wood, Audrey Hepburn, and and Tony Bennett hugging a Columbia Records microphone during his first recording session in 1955.

Two stories stand out. In one, Leonard arrives at Billie Holiday’s home. He’s greeted by a woman in an apron. He thought it was the housekeeper at first. Instead it was Billie herself, preparing a steak dinner for her boxer dog.

While apprenticing under the watchful eye of the great portrait photographer Yousef Karsh in Ottawa in the 1940’s, Leonard assisted in a photo session of Winston Churchill, who was visiting Canada for a political congress. Churchill entered the studio with a scowl and impatience written all over his face: he was in a bad mood. To further exacerbate his bad temper, he was told he couldn’t smoke his cigar in the studio. He kept smoking it. Karsh removed the cigar from Churchill’s mouth, and Churchill glowered even more. The memorable photo came to symbolize the bulldog determination of Britain to fight and overcome the Nazis. In fact, it was just Churchill in a foul mood.

Rick Frystack, my great longtime friend at Amoeba Music, set up a book signing with Herman, which is on Amoeba’s website: