© Gjon Mili / LIFE
This photograph was taken in 1943 at photographer Gjon Mili's studio in New York. Apart from the obvious Count Basie and Lester Young, and with the invaluable help of the good physiognomists at the organissimo jazz forums, one can recognize Earle Warren just below Prez, with Mezz Mezzrow on clarinet and drummer Kansas Fields next to him. Jo Jones and Sid Catlett flank Kansas Fields to make sure he does not miss a beat! The older bespectacled man on the extreme left is Pops Foster and the trumpeter up front at the left is the great Hot Lips Page. The saxophonist on the right looks like a 19-years-old Leo Parker on alto, his instrument until he turned to baritone around 1944. The following close-up doesn't allow me to recognize the second trumpet player. Any help 'round there?
© Gjon Mili / LIFE
I'll hazard a guess and say George Wettling on the right, behind the piano. The alto man looks familiar, but I'm not sure it is Leo P.
ResponderEliminarIt does look like Wettling! And I wonder if the second trumpeter isn't Sweets Edison -- not so much on appearance but on associations. Mezz had no business being there playing, although some might disagree.
ResponderEliminarI think it's Al Hall on bass. I don't think it's Sweets on trumpet (he looks more like Frankie Newton, IMHO). Still uncertain about the alto man.
ResponderEliminarOn the second picture, the man next to the white lady looks like drummer O'Neill Spencer.
ResponderEliminarI think the man between Lester Young and Mezz Mezzrow in the first picture is Clark Monroe, bandleader and club manager. See this.
ResponderEliminarYes, I think you're right, my friend. Thanks a lot!
ResponderEliminarAgustín.
ResponderEliminarI'm fairly sure the mistery trumpet player is Vic Coulsen. See http://thebadplus.typepad.com/dothemath/2008/11/google-sourcelife-vol-2-hawkins-and.html.
Also, in the last picture the guy talking to the woman on the left could be Taps Miller. See http://kymlawrence.com/music/Photo.asp?username=kymlawrence&photoID=223 and http://www.flickr.com/photos/11412072@N06/3681730533.
Fernando