Milton J. Hinton
American, 1910-2000
Jimmy Rushing, Scoville Browne, Maxine Sullivan, Joe Thomas, Coleman Hawkins, Oscar Pattiford, Marian McPartland, Emmett Berry, Sahib Shihab, Thelenious Monk and Rex Stewart, Esquire magazine shoot, Harlem, New York City, 1958
16” x 20”
Gelatin Silver Print
Purchased with funding from the State of New York. Percent for Art Program, 2001.
“I don’t think the Esquire people had any idea about the importance of the gathering. All they seemed to want was a perfect shot of the whole group posed on the stoop of a brownstone….Fortunately, I had enough sense to bring [three cameras]…”
– Milton J. Hinton
It started when freelance photographer Art Kane pitched a photo story to Esquire for inclusion in their “Golden Age of Jazz” issue. He put out a call to New York’s greatest jazz musicians, requesting they gather at 17 E. 126th Street at 10 o’clock on the morning of August 12, 1958. Fifty-eight legends showed up and Kane’s now-famous photograph, “A Great Day in Harlem,” was published in Esquire the following January.
During the gathering, Milt Hinton took it upon himself to document the event candidly. A renowned bassist as well as a photographer, his images often capture the side of the jazz world only insiders are privy to. In this black and white photograph, we see the eleven notable artists of the photograph’s title all posed in a line, their gaze on the unseen Kane to the right of the frame, as they prepare for the big moment.