Steve Schapiro: Jazz brings to light a largely unseen archive of 1960s jazz photography taken just before Steve Schapiro’s breakthrough as one of the decade’s leading social documentary photographers. The book, titled Jazz: Best of the Apollo, Village Vanguard, and Riverside Sessions, gathers rare images from the Apollo Theatre, the Village Vanguard, and Riverside Records sessions, capturing the genre’s top figures during a golden period in New York.
Schapiro, a Bronx native who began freelancing in the early 1960s, secured a rare access to record sessions and live performances, photographing players backstage, in the clubs, and at recordings. The work includes Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans, Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, Sonny Rollins, Count Basie, Melba Listol, and many others. The images are intimate and unguarded: Sonny Rollins lifting weights backstage, Bobby Timmons at the piano deep in a moment of discovery, and a smiling Paul Chambers—a rare sight, according to Sonny Rollins in the foreword.
The photographs were taken at a time when New York jazz was at its peak and the cultural landscape was shifting. The book carries personal testimony from musicians who remember the era. Rollins calls the pictures emotional, noting that they return him to a time he describes as copasetic. Charles McPherson and Louis and Nisha Hayes praise the book’s beauty and power, linking the images to the energy of the 1960s.
Written by jazz journalist Richard Scheinin, the volume pairs Schapiro’s early work with contextual writing that situates the photographs within the history of the period. Schapiro’s later career covered major figures like Muhammad Ali, Martin Luther King Jr., and James Baldwin. This collection marks an important early chapter that documents the jazz world with empathy and technical control.
Steve Schapiro: Jazz represents a significant archival contribution to music photography. The book makes visible the relationship between the artist and the medium and preserves moments from a defining era in American music.
Steve Schapiro: Jazz
Category: Photographer Monographs & Art Books
Author: Steve Schapiro, Richard Scheinin
Publisher: ACC Art Books
Publication Date:
June 2026
Print Length: 316 pages
Language: English
Price: paid
paid
paid
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