Scrolling on my phone the other day (I know, I know …), one of my all-time favourite photographs suddenly appeared.

Originally titled ‘Harlem 1958,’ it was reputedly the first professional shot taken by the legendary photographer Art Kane (1925-1995).

It features nearly 60 famous and not-so-famous jazz musicians gathered outside a brownstone in New York on an August morning.

What caught my attention on social media was a New York Times interactive article about the photograph, of which more shortly.

My own relationship with the image reaches back thirty years.

During the London Jazz Festival, I went to a cinema screening of a new documentary about the photograph and how it came to be created.

Titled ‘A Great Day in Harlem,’ the hour-long film with narration by Quincy Jones told an enthralling story.

I was not alone in loving it and it received an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary.

When the film was released on video (VHS), there was a cut-out form inside the accompanying booklet, offering the chance to own ‘A Great Day in Harlem’ poster. 

Mine duly arrived, was framed at a local art gallery run by a couple of jazz enthusiasts and hangs today on my study wall.

Sub-titled ‘A Film by Jean Bach,’ it was only when the film was released on DVD in the noughties that I learned about its producer’s determined efforts to bring her idea to the screen.

Jean Bach (1918-2013) was a radio producer and jazz fan, who tracked down surviving members of the group in the photograph and interviewed them.

As any researcher will agree, many of their recollections, even down to identifying who actually featured in the shot, turned out to be wildly inaccurate.

So it was a joy to discover the New York Times interactive article.

Its angle was that saxophonist Sonny Rollins, now aged 94, is the only survivor from that Great Day in Harlem photograph.

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