Hank O'Neal and I have known each other since I started JazzWax in 2007. He's a jazz hero, not only as an esteemed record producer and collector but also as an author, photographer, networker and a board member of the Jazz Foundation of America, which among other things provides jazz musicians in need of health care with financial assistance. [Photo above by Berenice Abbott, courtesy of Hank O'Neal]
On New Year's Eve day, Hank sent along an email to see how I was doing and to share what he's been up to of late. He also wanted to let me know how much he enjoyed the Chick Webb post. Then he mentioned that he had an image of the Chick Webb band in 1929 taken by Berenice Abbott at the Savoy Ballroom—a photo he said is likely the first image of a dance band in action vs. posing for a still. Hank studied photography with Abbott. [Photo above of Hank O'Neal by
The Abbott photo is at the top of this post. I'll let Hank fill you in on the rest:
Hi Marc. Above is the Chick Webb photo Berenice Abbott took at the Savoy in 1929. This is how I described it in my 1982 book, "Berenice Abbott: American Photographer" (McGraw-Hill):
"[The late 1920s] was a time to experiment, to try to make things look new and exciting in Abbott's photographs. One evening in 1929, a friend took her to the Savoy Ballroom, probably the most popular place in Harlem at the time, and she was captivated. Abbott thought the dancers were the best she had ever seen and wanted to photograph them.
"Permission to take a photograph was granted and she returned to the Savoy a few nights later. She set up her camera, guessed at the exposure, set off a magnesium flash and froze a moment in time at the Savoy, almost starting a riot in the process. She had taken what was probably the first live photograph of a jazz band in action, in this instance Chick Webb's.
"The friend may have been Lelia Walker (Madame C.J.'s daughter) or Jane Heap from the 'Little Review.' She never told me who. But Abbott was part of that uptown crowd. She said the dancers went nuts when the flash went off. You can see little Chick along with the trumpet players singing with megaphones. I used the picture again in my 2013 book, 'The Unknown Abbott: New York' (Steidl), where it is reproduced much larger and far better.
"Abbott took only a single picture that night, a 5" x 7" glass plate and made but one contact print that she kept for herself. It was sold at auction many years ago in the late 1980s or maybe early 1990s to photo-historian Cheryl Finley. I'm glad I copied it before it went away. Berenice loved to dance and even supported herself in Berlin in the early 1920s by giving dancing lessons."
Here's Chick Webb in 1929 playing Dog Bottom, with Ward Pinkett (tp,vcl); Edwin Swayzee (tp); Bob Horton (tb); Hilton Jefferson and Louis Jordan (as,cl); Elmer Williams (ts,cl); Don Kirkpatrick (p); John Trueheart (bj,g); Elmer James (tu) and Chick Webb (d)...
