Photography by Russell Dupont

January 3rd, 2020

 

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“Orange Quartet” by Russell Dupont

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…..New England artist Russell Dupont possesses a great love of jazz, art and photography.  His paintings, prints and photographs have been widely exhibited, and are in a number of public and private collections, including the Print Collection of The Boston Public Library; The Art Collections of both Brigham & Women’s Hospital and The Dana Farber Cancer Institute. He is a former artist-in-residence at the Milton Art Museum, and his work was featured in the Fall collection of poetry on Jerry Jazz Musician, published in October.

…..Russell is also the author of two novels — King & Train and Waiting for the Turk; two chapbooks of poetry – Winter, 1948 and Establishing Home Plate; and two non-fiction chapbooks — Up in Wisconsin: Travels with Kinsley and There Is No Dam Now At Richford.

…..Th The “before and after” work featured in this post utilizes a combination of Russell’s love for jazz, art, and photography, and when combined with modern digital technology, results in a rare way to experience the art of the music.

…..Russell introduces his work…

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“Come on babe
why don’t we paint the town,
and all that Jazz”

[Music by John Kander
and Lyrics by Fred Ebb]

 

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…..I had the fortune to grow up around uncles, not much older than I, who had an intense interest in jazz and passed that along to me. At first, I didn’t have a clue when they spoke about a “Bird” or a “Monk,” or some guy they called “Cannonball.”  But eventually, I began to absorb and even understand some of what they were talking about and listening to. Around the same time, when I was in my teens, I picked up a camera and began photographing my friends and walking the streets of Boston taking pictures.

…..Somewhere along the way, I saw some photos by a photographer, William Claxton; photos of the same artists whose records my uncles played. Years later, I experienced the same surge of excitement when I looked at the jazz collages of an artist named Romare Bearden and something clicked — the realization that jazz and art were intimately connected.

…..Boston had a pretty lively jazz scene at the time, along with an iconic radio personality, Norm Nathan, whose show “Sounds in the Night’ lulled me to sleep but it never would have dawned on me to walk into The Hi-Hat or Wally’s, pull out my camera and star snapping pictures.

…..I heard that, on a few summer nights, a group of three or four guys got together on the front steps on one of the buildings in the notorious Columbia Point Housing Project and played jazz. I lived a short walk away in South Boston, picked up my camera and wandered over one evening. Four of those photos appear here. The other four were taken one summer day when I stumbled across a jazz “festival” set up outside of the Jordan Marsh Department Store in Boston.

…..My photographic style at that time was straight-up, get-in-your-face photography; but I remember reading a quote by some famous photographer — “The photo is only the beginning” — and began “playing” with my photos; painting over them, cutting them up for montages, altering them in different ways; often tedious work when my darkroom was in the bathroom and I had to wait until my children were in bed before getting to work.

…..Then, computers and programs like Photoshop arrived and I found a multitude of ways to alter, enhance, change some of the photos I took. The photos here represent my love of jazz, my love of art and my love of photography.

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-Russell Dupont

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The “Columbia Point” Photographs

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“Sax”

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“Um Abraco No Getz”

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“Groovin'”

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“Drummer”

 

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The “Jazz Festival” Photographs

 

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“Bamboo Flute Blues”

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“Combo”

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“Flutist”

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“Orange Quartet”

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All photographs copyright Russell Dupont

For more information about Russell’s work, visit his website by clicking here

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Site Archive

In This Issue

painting of Clifford Brown by Paul Lovering
A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Spring/Summer, 2024 Edition...In this, the 17th major collection of jazz poetry published on Jerry Jazz Musician, 50 poets from all over the world again demonstrate the ongoing influence the music and its associated culture has on their creative lives.

(featuring the art of Paul Lovering)

Feature

photo of Rudy Van Gelder via Blue Note Records
“Rudy Van Gelder: Jazz Music’s Recording Angel” – an essay by Joel Lewis...For over 60 years, the legendary recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder devoted himself to the language of sound. And although he recorded everything from glee clubs to classical music, he was best known for recording jazz – specifically the musicians associated with Blue Note and Prestige records. Joel Lewis writes about his impact on the sound of jazz, and what has become of his Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey studio.

Interview

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Publisher’s Notes

photo by Rhonda Dorsett
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The Sunday Poem

painting by Jennylynd James
”He Jazzed His Way," by Susie Gharib

Click here to read previous editions of The Sunday Poem

Essay

“Gone Guy: Jazz’s Unsung Dodo Marmarosa,” by Michael Zimecki...The writer remembers the late jazz musician Michael “Dodo” Marmarosa, awarded Esquire Magazine’s New Star Award in 1947, and who critics predicted would dominate the jazz scene for the next 30 years.

Short Fiction

Impulse! Records and ABC/Dunhill Records. Photographer uncredited/via Wikimedia Commons
Short Fiction Contest-winning story #66 — “Not From Around Here” by Jeff Dingler...The author’s award-winning story is about a Jewish kid coming of age in Alabama and discovering his identity through music, in particular the interstellar sound of Sun Ra..

Click here to read more short fiction published on Jerry Jazz Musician

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Interview

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John Coltrane, by Martel Chapman
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Short Fiction

Munich University of Music and Theater/© Raimond Spekking/via Wikimedia Commons
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Poetry

“Revival” © Kent Ambler.
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Interview

The Marvelettes/via Wikimedia Commons
Interview with Laura Flam and Emily Sieu Liebowitz, authors of But Will You Love Me Tomorrow?: An Oral History of the 60’s Girl Groups...Little is known of the lives and challenges many of the young Black women who made up the Girl Groups of the ‘60’s faced while performing during an era rife with racism, sexism, and music industry corruption. The authors discuss their book’s mission to provide the artists an opportunity to voice their experiences so crucial to the evolution of popular music.

Short Fiction

photo via FreeRangeStock
“Hip Replacements” – a short story by William Torphy...The story – a short-listed entry in our recently concluded 66th Short Fiction contest – is a humorous take on a septuagenarian attempt to resurrect a revival band.

Art

photo of Leroy Jenkins by Giovanni Piesco
The Photographs of Giovanni Piesco: Leroy Jenkins...photos of the eminent free jazz violinist, taken at Amsterdam's Bimhuis on January 4, 1999.

Short Fiction

Shisma, CC BY 4.0  via Wikimedia Commons
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Essay

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Trading Fours with Douglas Cole

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In Memoriam

Hans Bernhard (Schnobby), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Book Excerpt

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Click here to read more book excerpts published on Jerry Jazz Musician

Jazz History Quiz #176

photo of Lester Young by William Gottlieb/Library of Congress
While legendary as a saxophonist, his first instrument was a violin and his second the piano — which he played well enough to work as an accompanist to silent movies. Ultimately it was Lester Young’s father who taught him the saxophone well enough that he switched instruments for good. (It was during this time that he also saved Lester from drowning in a river). Who is he?

Community

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“Community Bookshelf” is a twice-yearly space where writers who have been published on Jerry Jazz Musician can share news about their recently authored books and/or recordings. This edition includes information about books published within the last six months or so (March – September, 2024)

Contributing Writers

Click the image to view the writers, poets and artists whose work has been published on Jerry Jazz Musician, and find links to their work

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An interview with Larry Tye, author of The Jazzmen: How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie Transformed America; an interview with Jonathon Grasse, author of Jazz Revolutionary: The Life & Music of Eric Dolphy; A new collection of jazz poetry; a collection of jazz haiku; a new Jazz History Quiz; short fiction; poetry; photography; interviews; playlists; and lots more in the works...

Interview Archive

Ella Fitzgerald/IISG, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Click to view the complete 25-year archive of Jerry Jazz Musician interviews, including those recently published with Judith Tick on Ella Fitzgerald (pictured),; Laura Flam and Emily Sieu Liebowitz on the Girl Groups of the 60's; Tad Richards on Small Group Swing; Stephanie Stein Crease on Chick Webb; Brent Hayes Edwards on Henry Threadgill; Richard Koloda on Albert Ayler; Glenn Mott on Stanley Crouch; Richard Carlin and Ken Bloom on Eubie Blake; Richard Brent Turner on jazz and Islam; Alyn Shipton on the art of jazz; Shawn Levy on the original queens of standup comedy; Travis Atria on the expatriate trumpeter Arthur Briggs; Kitt Shapiro on her life with her mother, Eartha Kitt; Will Friedwald on Nat King Cole; Wayne Enstice on the drummer Dottie Dodgion; the drummer Joe La Barbera on Bill Evans; Philip Clark on Dave Brubeck; Nicholas Buccola on James Baldwin and William F. Buckley; Ricky Riccardi on Louis Armstrong; Dan Morgenstern and Christian Sands on Erroll Garner; Maria Golia on Ornette Coleman.