Courtesy of the Heirs of W. Eugene Smith and the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona.

Jazz in the Flower District:

Photographer W. Eugene Smith moved into a loft at 821 Sixth Avenue, in the heart of New York’s Flower District, in 1957. The place had already become a hangout for artists, writers and especially jazz musicians, who rehearsed and jammed there. Among the visitors to the loft: Thelonious Monk, Zoot Sims, Bill Evans, Steve Swallow, Mose Allison, Bob Brookmeyer and hundreds more, over a period of about 8 years.

Four Thousand Hours!:

As Smith settled in and made a home and studio there, he became fascinated – and some say obsessed – with the life in and around the loft. He began to document the activity there in photographs and audio tapes. By the time he left the loft in the early 70’s, he’d shot 40,000 photos of musicians, artists, empty rooms, views out the window, jam sessions and parties. He’d recorded roughly 4000 hours of audio tape, including rehearsals for the famous 1959 Big Band concert at Town Hall, featuring the Thelonious Monk Tentet, as well as hundreds of jam sessions among players, known and obscure. Along with the music: conversations, meowing cats, casual visits from the cop on the beat, television and radio programs that happened to be one while the tape was running.

The Project:

Sara Fishko and WNYC, in collaboration with partners at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke and the New York Public Library, are building a radio series from the tapes of loft life discovered in W. Eugene Smith’s vast archive.

Listen:

This is a brief excerpt of a pilot for the series, which resulted in a grant from the National Endowment from the Humanities for production of the series.

More to come:

The project, due to premiere in late 2009 or early 2010, will coordinate with a book by CDS’ Sam Stephenson, published by Knopf, and a photo exhibition at the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts.

Copyright WNYC. NOT to be duplicated or rebroadcast in fashion.

The Jazz Loft Project at WNYC is made possible, in part, by a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this audio clip do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.