By Sylvia Dees White 

These photos were all shot in 1960 by my first wife, Sylvia.  At this time I was a young jazz critic and Sylvia’s photos accompanied many of my pieces – especially one I had in Rogue magazine on the young saxophonists of 1960, John Handy, Eric Dolphy and Ken McIntyre.   Over the years these photos resided inside the pages of my American Heritage Dictionary, preserved from wear or loss.

John Handy.  This was taken in the living room of our Christopher Street fourth-floor walkup, in Greenwich Village.  We’d met John while he was playing with Charles Mingus, but I got to know him better after he brought his own quartet (with pianist Don Friedman) to the Showplace, replacing Mingus as the artist in residence.  He liked to drop by – our apartment was only three blocks from the Showplace – and listen to new records I had to review for Metronome magazine.

Eric Dolphy.  This closeup of Eric playing alto sax was taken in a ballet rehearsal studio in which Eric was practicing that summer.  I lugged a reel-to-reel tape recorder there in order to do a lengthy interview with him which, it turns out, is Eric’s only recorded interview.  The tape has been widely copied (with my permission) within the jazz fraternity and parts of it have been broadcast on various radio shows over the years.

Eric Dolphy. Here Dolphy, playing bass clarinet, can be seen in the ballet rehearsal studio.  His alto and flute are at his feet.  Although he was playing these instruments for Sylvia’s benefit, he used the time spent posing for photos actually practicing.  He practiced incessantly.  Once, when he was playing with Mingus at the Showplace, we heard him practicing his flute backstage, between sets.  “He never stops practicing,” Mingus told us.

Ornette Coleman.  This was taken at the Rebel Jazz Festival at Cliff Walk Manor, in Newport, Rhode Island on the weekend of July 4th, 1960.  This “rump” festival was thrown by Mingus, Coleman, Max Roach and the Jazz Artists Guild while the main Newport Jazz Festival went on a mile away.  That festival was disrupted by a riot; the tear gas drifted down to where we were, but did not stop the music.  Here Coleman can be seen soloing on his white plastic alto sax, with bassist Charlie Haden in the lower left corner.

Ornette Coleman with his group at the Rebel Jazz Festival.   Don Cherry (left) is soloing on his pocket trumpet, while Charlie Haden (right) plays bass.  (Billy Higgins is the drummer and only his right hand is visible, the drumstick he is holding just a blur.)  They were playing on an open stage set up on a lawn overlooking the sea.  Night had fallen.