GRAMMY Magazine - June 29, 2004

The Terminal Brings Classic Photo Into Relief
Steven Spielberg film uses renowned jazz photo "A Great Day In Harlem" to jump-start its plot

GRAMMY.com
Dave Helland

For detailed photo and caption info click here

An Eastern European tourist flies to the United States to get saxophonist Benny Golson's autograph. But by the time he lands, a military coup back home has, through the vagaries of diplomacy and foreign policy, made him stateless, his passport worthless. However improbable, he ends up stuck in an airport for a year.

That's the plot of Steven Spielberg's new film, The Terminal, starring Tom Hanks as Viktor Navorski, who comes to the United States to complete his father's collection of autographs by the jazz musicians pictured in the classic 1958 photo known as "A Great Day In Harlem."

If the plot seems far-fetched, you underestimate the fanaticism of foreign jazz fans and the iconic status of that oft-reproduced photo. "A Great Day In Harlem" is to the jazz world what a Mickey Mantle rookie baseball card might be to a baseball fan.

"When we took that picture, nobody thought it would become famous, nobody," recalls Golson, who is frequently asked for his autograph and occasionally asked to sign a reproduction of the photo. He was invited to the shoot by then- Down Beat reviewer Nat Hentoff. "When I got there I wondered why I was there. I was a nobody. I think I only knew four people: Dizzy Gillespie, [who] I was playing with, Art Farmer, Johnny Griffin, and Sonny Rollins."

But Golson went on to become one of the most-often covered composers in jazz, for his works "I Remember Clifford," "Along Came Betty," and "Killer Joe." He has a scene in the film — playing in a Ramada Inn — which led to a new record, Terminal 1, released June 22. "I didn't want to infringe on his title so my title was a little more specific to commemorate doing this thing with Steven [Speilberg]," explains Golson. "The CD never would have happened had he not asked me to be in the picture."

How the photo came to be shot is documented in Jean Bach's 1994 film, A Great Day In Harlem. Esquire art director Robert Benton approached another art director, Art Kane (www.artkane.com), to contribute photos for an issue devoted to jazz. Kane thought of getting "every jazz musician we can possibly assemble." Word went out to publicists and producers at small jazz labels. On the appointed day and hour they began assembling, no small feat, as one of the musicians pointed out: He didn't realize there were two 10 o'clocks in the same day.

Benny Golson
Photo: Lisa Stein

Bassist Milt Hinton, who never went anywhere without his still camera, also brought an 8mm movie camera. Bach interspersed these stills and movie footage with interviews conducted in the early '90s of surviving musicians, Hentoff, Kane and others instrumental in making the photo happen. Hinton's pictures show musicians milling around, greeting not just old friends but also their mentors, and paying little attention to attempts to pose them. Kane and his assistant Steve Frankfurt were literally trying to herd cats.

But gradually the musicians took their places along the sidewalk and up the steps of this classic Harlem brownstone. Basie sat on the curb with a dozen kids from the neighborhood. Other children looked out the windows. Briefly, 56 pairs of eyes looked at the camera — all but Roy Eldridge, who looked over his shoulder at Gillespie — and Kane snapped his picture, arguably the most important piece of film in jazz history.

The musical connection between people like trumpeters Gillespie and Eldridge, who stand next to each other, and tenor saxophonists Rollins and Coleman Hawkins, who stand near each other, is evident in the final photo. "A Great Day In Harlem" shows the development of the music, beginning with the pre-jazz era represented by stride pianist Luckey Roberts; the early days of jazz that was played by musicians like drummer Zutty Singleton of Armstrong's Hot Five, trombonist Miff Mole of Red Nichols' Five Pennies, and fiddler Stuff Smith, who played with Jelly Roll Morton; swing era drummers like Gene Krupa, Sonny Greer and Jo Jones plus Count Basie and members of his Old Testament Band, Buck Clayton and Jimmy Rushing; and modern stylists like Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, and Gerry Mulligan. Near the top of the steps are drummer Art Blakey and two men who would soon join his Jazz Messengers: Art Farmer and Benny Golson.

"There's only about seven or eight of us left now," says Golson. But his partner in the Messengers and later their own Jazztet had a different take on it when Bach filmed them.

"We don't think about people not being here," said the late Art Farmer. "If we think about Lester Young, we don't think, 'yeah, Lester Young was here but he's not here anymore.' Lester Young is here. Coleman Hawkins is here. Roy Eldridge is here. They are in us and they will always be in us."

(Dave Helland regrets that he didn't start collecting jazz musicians' autographs in pictorial history books until 1980.)