Funds will Provide Support for Archiving and Preservation of one of the World’s Largest Collections of Jazz Images by a Single Photographer

Studio City, Calif. (PRWEB) April 3, 2008 — The GRAMMY Foundation® Grant Program recently announced that it has awarded a $33,017 grant to the Herman Leonard Jazz Archive to support the preserving and organizing of Herman Leonard’s large, historically-significant archive of 65,000 negatives, comprising one of the most complete photographic documents of American Jazz from the 1940’s and 50’s. Significant negatives will be scanned, archived and made accessible to the public.

At the birth of Bebop, Herman Leonard was the family photographer. From New Orleans to New York to Paris, where African American musicians did not have to endure the discrimination faced in the United States, Herman Leonard followed the music and the musicians.

The Smithsonian claims 130 original Herman Leonard photographic prints in its permanent collection, where they are considered as essential to American music history as Benny Goodman’s clarinet or Louis Armstrong’s horn.

Herman photographed legendary performers in legendary clubs. The Downbeat Club, 1949, Ella Fitzgerald is singing on stage, it’s her birthday and Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman look up at her in utter reverence from the two front tables. Billie Holiday. Charlie “Bird” Parker. Louis Armstrong. Dizzy Gillespie. Miles Davis. Birdland. The Royal Roost. Minton’s. Bop City and Club St. Germain. All photographed by Herman Leonard in that unmistakable style that captures the essence of Jazz.

Fifty years later, in 1990, Herman settled in New Orleans, the Jazz capital of America. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina claimed some 8,000 photographs printed by Herman Leonard, a master printer in his own right. As the storm blew in, Herman’s crew gathered the negatives and placed them in the care of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art where they were stored in a vault.

Herman and a group of friends moved as many of his prints as they could to the third floor of his home. Over 10 feet of water and mud flooded Herman’s studio on the lower floor. Mold flourished in the two upper floors destroying Herman’s legacy of thousands of custom-printed photographs as well Herman’s exposure logs.

Having relocated to Los Angeles where his negatives are in cold-storage to prevent further deterioration, the 85 year-old Herman Leonard and his staff now are undertaking the cataloging, restoring and re-printing this body of iconic Jazz photographs. Without exposure logs, Herman must experiment with light and timing, printing every photograph as if it is the first time. Damaged negatives must be digitally restored and reproduced for photographic printing.

In his forward to the book “Jazz, Giants, And Journeys: The Photography of Herman Leonard” Quincy Jones wrote, “When people think of jazz, their mental picture is likely one of Herman’s.” The grant award from the Grammy Foundation will literally be “Resurrecting Jazz” - bringing this visual documentation of America’s original art form back to life and preserving it for future generations.

The Herman Leonard Jazz Archive is headed by Geraldine Baum, Herman’s Archivist and Manager as well as Cynthia Sesso of CTS Images, Herman’s Licensing Administrator.

The Herman Leonard Jazz Archive was established in 2007. For more information about Herman Leonard, please visit www.hermanleonard.com.

The GRAMMY Foundation was established in 1989 to cultivate the understanding, appreciation and advancement of the contribution of recorded music to American culture — from the artistic and technical legends of the past to the still unimagined musical breakthroughs of future generations of music professionals. The Foundation accomplishes this mission through programs and activities that engage the music industry and cultural community as well as the general public. The Foundation works in partnership year-round with its founder, The Recording Academy, to bring national attention to important issues such as the value and impact of music and arts education and the urgency of preserving our rich cultural heritage. For more information, please visit www.grammyfoundation.com.