fbpx
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Print Edition
    • Get Home Delivery
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Submit Your Event
    • Customer Support
    • Submit A News Tip
    • Send Letter to the Editor
    • Where’s My Paper?
  • Our Newsletters
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial
Hudson Valley One
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s UP
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Subscribe to the What’s UP newsletter
  • Opinion
    • Letters
    • Columns
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Log Out
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s UP
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Subscribe to the What’s UP newsletter
  • Opinion
    • Letters
    • Columns
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Log Out
No Result
View All Result
Hudson Valley One
No Result
View All Result

The Jazz Loft according to W. Eugene Smith at Rosendale Theatre

by Frances Marion Platt
January 15, 2017
in Stage & Screen
0
The Jazz Loft according to W. Eugene Smith at Rosendale Theatre

W. Eugene Smith, Thelonious Monk and his Band, 1959. © 1999, 2015 (The Heirs of W. Eugene Smith)

W. Eugene Smith, Thelonious Monk and his Band, 1959. © 1999, 2015 (The Heirs of W. Eugene Smith)

 

W. Eugene Smith, Self-portrait at loft window. © 2009, 2015 (The Heirs of W. Eugene Smith)

By any measure, W. Eugene Smith (1918-1978) was one of the giants of the art of photojournalism. He is credited with being the originator of the “photo essay” concept, beginning in 1948 with a series about a country doctor in Colorado and culminating with the heartrending Minamata (1975), a book documenting the horrific effects of mercury poisoning on the residents of a fishing town in Japan. He spent many years working for Life magazine, producing iconic images of US Marines and Japanese prisoners-of-war in the Pacific Islands during World War II, impoverished Welsh miners during the 1950 election in the UK, Spanish villagers under the Franco regime and a series depicting Dr. Albert Schweitzer’s clinic in Gabon. The much-replicated image that closes the famous 1955 international photo exhibition and book The Family of Man is “The Walk to Paradise Garden,” Smith’s shot of two small children emerging hand-in-hand from a dark wood, silhouetted against brilliant sunlight.

The photographer also had Hudson Valley connections. After his death, his son, K. Patrick Smith, donated 25 of his father’s photographs to Dutchess Community College in honor of his mother, Carmen Smith Wood, Smith’s first wife and a 1979 DCC graduate. The works are displayed in the Martha Reifler Myers Gallery on the DCC campus in Poughkeepsie. The Crum Elbow Cemetery in Hyde Park is the final resting place of W. Eugene Smith’s cremains.

Now, another of Smith’s legacies has been brought to light, thanks to the efforts of WNYC radio culture guru Sara Fishko: a documentary film revealing the exhaustive records, both visual and audio, that the photographer compiled while living next door to a loft at 821 Sixth Avenue in Manhattan’s Flower District from 1957 and 1965. That loft was a Mecca for the jazz artists of the era, who would meet there to jam and rehearse. Smith installed microphones throughout the building, even in the stairwells, capturing off-the-cuff conversations between legendary artists along with their musical collaborations. In those seven years, he collected an astonishing 4,000 hours of reel-to-reel audiotape and nearly 40,000 photographs.

Besides having full access to the collection, Fishko recorded hundreds of hours of interviews with surviving habitués of the gathering place. The resulting film, The Jazz Loft according to W. Eugene Smith, includes portraits of composer/arranger Hall Overton – a resident of the loft – and the protean saxophonist Zoot Sims. The rise and fall of Ronnie Free, a jazz drummer from the South whose career succumbed to heavy drug use, is largely related by Free himself. Thelonious Monk rehearses for his celebrated 1959 big-band concert at Town Hall. The ’50s give way to the ’60s; Smith begins to record his own phone calls and visits from the local police; the world changes – and Smith gets evicted. “The bohemian paradise of this environment had a dark side, and the movie doesn’t give it short shrift. Nevertheless, a genuine exhilaration holds throughout,” wrote New York Times reviewer Glenn Kenny.

The Jazz Loft according to W. Eugene Smith will be the 24th film to be presented in the Rosendale Theatre’s ongoing curated Music Fan Film Series, with screenings at 7:15 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday, January 10 and 11. Tickets cost $7 general admission, $5 for Rosendale Theatre Collective members. Located at 408 Main Street (Route 213) in Rosendale, the Rosendale Theatre is handicapped-accessible and offers ample parking in the rear. For more info, call (845) 658-8989 or visit www.rosendaletheatre.org.

 

The Jazz Loft according to W. Eugene Smith screenings, Tuesday/Wednesday, January 10/11, 7:15 p.m., $7/$5, Rosendale Theatre, 408 Main Street, Rosendale; (845) 658-8989, www.rosendaletheatre.org.

Join the family! Grab a free month of HV1 from the folks who have brought you substantive local news since 1972. We made it 50 years thanks to support from readers like you. Help us keep real journalism alive.
- Geddy Sveikauskas, Publisher

Frances Marion Platt

Frances Marion Platt has been a feature writer (and copyeditor) for Ulster Publishing since 1994, under both her own name and the nom de plume Zhemyna Jurate. Her reporting beats include Gardiner and Rosendale, the arts and a bit of local history. In 2011 she took up Syd M’s mantle as film reviewer for Alm@nac Weekly, and she hopes to return to doing more of that as HV1 recovers from the shock of COVID-19. A Queens native, Platt moved to New Paltz in 1971 to earn a BA in English and minor in Linguistics at SUNY. Her first writing/editing gig was with the Ulster County Artist magazine. In the 1980s she was assistant editor of The Independent Film and Video Monthly for five years, attended Heartwood Owner/Builder School, designed and built a timberframe house in Gardiner. Her son Evan Pallor was born in 1995. Alternating with her journalism career, she spent many years doing development work – mainly grantwriting – for a variety of not-for-profit organizations, including six years at Scenic Hudson. She currently lives in Kingston.

Related Posts

You should finally cave and see a performance at Widow Jane Mine
Stage & Screen

You should finally cave and see a performance at Widow Jane Mine

July 11, 2025
Legendary Woodstocker will lead rare performance this Saturday
Stage & Screen

Legendary Woodstocker will lead rare performance this Saturday

June 27, 2025
Eugene Tyler Band comes to Rough Draft this Friday
Stage & Screen

Dance showcase in Kingston this weekend

June 26, 2025
Follow the yellow brick road to the Center for Performing Arts of Rhinebeck
Stage & Screen

Follow the yellow brick road to the Center for Performing Arts of Rhinebeck

June 5, 2025
Storytelling over jazz in Kingston this Saturday
Stage & Screen

Storytelling over jazz in Kingston this Saturday

May 30, 2025
Short films and songwriters join forces in Rosendale on Thursday
Stage & Screen

Short films and songwriters join forces in Rosendale on Thursday

May 28, 2025
Next Post
New membership-based Gallery@Rhinebeck opens

New membership-based Gallery@Rhinebeck opens

Weather

Kingston, NY
93°
Partly Cloudy
5:33 am8:30 pm EDT
Feels like: 102°F
Wind: 7mph S
Humidity: 47%
Pressure: 29.94"Hg
UV index: 7
ThuFriSat
93°F / 66°F
81°F / 57°F
86°F / 68°F
Kingston, NY 10 days weather forecast ▸

Subscribe

Independent. Local. Substantive. Subscribe now.

  • Subscribe & Support
  • Print Edition
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
  • Our Newsletters
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial

© 2022 Ulster Publishing

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Art
    • Books
    • Kids
    • Lifestyle & Wellness
    • Food & Drink
    • Music
    • Nature
    • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Contact Us
    • Customer Support
    • Advertise
    • Submit A News Tip
  • Print Edition
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
    • Where’s My Paper
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Log In
  • Free HV1 Trial
  • Subscribe to Our Newsletters
    • Hey Kingston
    • New Paltz Times
    • Woodstock Times
    • Week in Review

© 2022 Ulster Publishing