Thursday evening 2 June 2011
Nasher Museum of Art in Durham
Walked through the Jazz Loft Project exhibition and here is what I enjoyed the black & whiteness of the images which somehow romanticizes a period of life particularly when it is NYC which resonates for me though the period of these photos began the year I was born that there was a jazz loft a place for music for exploration and practice and out of that emerged community and connection then the photos of Monk whose music speaks to me as he pushed the edges of melody and harmony and rhythm without exiting the realm of form, of sense of place and speaking of place there’s the window of 821 Sixth Avenue which often called to Gene Smith as he established residence in this building away from his wife and kids and documented this community visually and aurally the window was the path provided the path for him between an extraordinary musical world and the world below on the avenue, filled with one moment followed by the next each and all worthy of attention to have immersed himself so completely into this microcosm of existence was extraordinary and we are the beneficiaries of his devotional embrace of this period of time
