Hank Jones (Detroit Portrait series)
Artist
Kurt Novak
(American)
Date2003 - 2005
MediumArchival pigment print on cotton rag paper
DimensionsPaper Size: 16 × 20 in. (40.6 × 50.8 cm)
Frame Size: 22 1/2 × 26 1/2 in. (57.2 × 67.3 cm)
ClassificationsPhotograph
Object numberUAC6101
DescriptionComing from a family of gifted and talented musicians, “Jazz Master” Henry “Hank” Jones grew up in Pontiac, Michigan in the dawn of the Roaring Twenties. In a home full of musicians, it was only natural that the family would listen to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Sunday radio broadcasts every week. Originally reluctant to practice piano, once Jones looked outside classical music and listened to artists such as Art Tatum, Earl Hines, Duke Ellington, and Fats Waller, his enthusiasm for the keys was ignited. Jones traveled through Michigan and Ohio with the Detroit-based territory band of Benny Carew, and soon after made the pivotal move to New York, joining the band of Oran “Hot Lips” Page. With a sound described as “exceptional,” “lyrical,” and “impeccable,” Jones has worked with a variety of artists, including Ella Fitzgerald, Charlie Parker, and Louis Armstong, and even accompanied Marilyn Monroe’s famous birthday serenade to President John F. Kennedy in 1962. Jones never stopped playing, earning a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award in 2009 and had plans for a spring European tour just before his death on May 16th, 2010.“I am the sum total of everything that I have experienced musically.”
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