[Poetry Friday] The Rhythm of a Famous Photograph in “Jazz Day”

Myra here.

I am very pleased to be joining the Poetry Friday community again this week. Special thanks to the amazing poet Laura Purdie Salas for hosting this week in her blog Writing the World For Kids.

Since our current reading theme is all about beauty, art, music, I thought that this title, in particular, would be perfect.

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Jazz Day: The Making Of A Famous Photograph

Written by Roxane Orgill Illustrated by Francis Vallejo
Published by Candlewick Press (2016)
ISBN-10: 0763669547 (ISBN13: 9780763669546). Literary Award: Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Picture Book (2016)
Borrowed from the Jurong West Public Library. Book photos taken by me.

This brilliant picturebook told in verse revolves mainly around a famous photograph published in Esquire magazine in 1958, featuring American jazz. Art Kane did not even own a camera at the time, but pitched the idea of gathering as many jazz musicians as he could in front of a Harlem brownstone.

This is an imagined version of the difficulties, uncertainties, anxieties – not to mention excitement that Art Kane may have felt at the time.

As noted by Orgill in her Author’s Note found at the end of the book:

I’ve known of Art Kane’s photograph for about as long as I’ve been listening to jazz, which I got to know as a sideline to my job as a classical music critic. I’ve seen the documentary at least three times.

I marveled that musicians would show up for a group photo in such great numbers and that they would be having such a good time, as is obvious in the expressions on their faces. I wanted to tell the story of how the photo got made and of some of the people who happened to be in it.

Orgill also noted how surprised she was that she ended up writing this in verse, as she writes prose – mostly. However, the exercise of writing this story demanded something more distilled, more free-flowing, more with a beat, cadence, and rhythm to it – hence Jazz Day was born. My Poetry Friday offering is this poem of the young girl looking outside her window, marveling at all the goings-on in the ground before her as jazz musicians come together – how this pulse of the city – so alive, so vibrant, so musical – must have seemed like for her.

Naturally, I am offering a few video clips of some of the jazz musicians mentioned in this book. Enjoy!

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#LitWorld2018GB Update: United States of America