How do the words “Ella Fitzgerald singing to Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman, NYC, 1949” strike you? If they send chills to the spine, as they should, “Jazz Giants: The Photography of Herman Leonard” is bound to please you, a lot. Leonard was friends with Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, and others in New York and Paris in the 1940s and '50s, happened to be a gifted photographer, and the resulting images are iconic. A concurrent exhibition of his is up now at NYC's Jazz at Lincoln Center — and everyone knows New Yorkers do not mess around with either their jazz or their art.
April 5-May 16, 2010