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SFJAZZ Unveils Jim Marshall Photography Installation in San Francisco Unified School District Building Windows Across Street From SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco

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Photographs will be exhibited from September 8, 2016 to May 2017

SFJAZZ announces the unveiling of a new photography installation from legendary photographer and longtime San Francisco resident Jim Marshall in the windows of the vacant San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) building across the street from the SFJAZZ Center on Franklin Street at Fell Street in the city’s Hayes Valley neighborhood. The installation will be unveiled at dusk on Thursday, September 8, 2016 to coincide with the organization’s Fifth Anniversary Season celebration kick off with performances by guitarists Pat Metheny and the Julian Lage Trio. The SFJAZZ Fifth Anniversary Season runs until May 2017 and features over 300 concerts and events.

To celebrate the Grand Opening of the SFJAZZ Center on January 21, 2013, SFJAZZ installed iconic jazz photographs from famed jazz photographer Herman Leonard in the windows of the vacant SFUSD building. The Herman Leonard installation received international media attention and was displayed in two different versions for over three years. This installation will now be replaced by a collection of many never-before-seen Jim Marshall jazz photographs featured in the Reel Art Press book Jazz Festival: Jim Marshall. SFJAZZ Photographer Laureate Jim Goldberg curated the installation and will include twenty-four photographs featuring Tony Williams, Joe Henderson, Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis, Mary Lou Williams, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Charles Lloyd, and current SFJAZZ Resident Artistic Director Mary Stallings.


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“To have Jim’s photographs looking down at the SFJAZZ Center and to passersby reminds all of us of the importance of jazz to San Francisco and to the American experience,” says SFJAZZ Founder and Executive Artistic Director Randall Kline. “Many people might not be aware that Jim photographed numerous jazz artists, jazz concerts, and jazz festivals and SFJAZZ is thrilled that his jazz work will be introduced and exposed to people here in San Francisco and people from around the world.”

“We are pleased to be partnering with SFJAZZ for a public installation of Jim Marshall's historic jazz photography and to celebrate our new book, Jazz Festival: Jim Marshall published by Reel Art Press,” says Amelia Davis, Jim Marshall Estate owner and the book’s co-editor. “We cannot think of a better way to honor Jim than with the SFJAZZ Center. Finally, Jim Marshall gets the recognition he deserves for his jazz photography. Jim was always known for his iconic rock & roll photography but very few people realize that Jim's first subjects were not Jimi Hendrix or Janis Joplin but jazz greats like John Coltrane and Miles Davis. Now they will! Stop, look up, and feel the music!"

Reel Art Press is releasing Jazz Festival: Jim Marshall, a perfect tribute to the legendary photographer. SFJAZZ Members will receive a 30% discount on the book available from the SFJAZZ Center box office. Containing 95% previously unseen images, Marshall managed to capture the freedom, the excitement and the intimacy of the Newport and Monterey Jazz Festivals of the 1960s. All of the jazz icons are here—Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Wes Montgomery, Ben Webster, Nina Simone, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, and so many more. Marshall’s inimitable lens immortalized them all and his unrestricted access meant that he got the shots others only dreamed about. Effortlessly cool, they capture not only the thrill of the performers and their private, unguarded moments but the unique atmosphere and sense of lightness and openness among the crowd- old, young, black, white. Newport and Monterey were the first popular music festivals, taking place during one of the most important moments in the annulls of jazz and these influential performers were some of the biggest musicians of the day. Marshall remained lifelong friends with many of his jazz subjects, which would also prove to be the case with his later work, establishing trusted close and professional relationships with music legends. This extraordinary book celebrates Marshall’s unique talent and lifelong desire to “capture the perfect moment.”

During the extraordinary rise of popular culture and counterculture in the Sixties, Jim Marshall seemed to be everywhere that mattered. Called the most celebrated and prolific photographer of the 20th century, Marshall is widely known for his iconic music photography. Because Jim lived life alongside his subjects and never betrayed their trust, he was granted second-to-none access. His images of the Monterey Pop Festival, which chronicled the breakout performances of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Otis Redding, were woven into the lore of the era. Marshall also photographed unguarded moments of his subjects, such as Janis Joplin lounging backstage with a bottle of Southern Comfort and Brian Jones and Jimi Hendrix strolling the Monterey Pop Festival fairgrounds. Johnny Cash's groundbreaking concerts for prison reform at Folsom Prison and San Quentin Prison were captured in the lens of Marshall's camera. In a career that ended with his untimely death in 2010, Marshall shot more than 500 album covers; his photographs are in private and museum collections around the world. 

Posthumously, Jim Marshall holds the distinction of being the first and only photographer to be presented with the Recording Academy's Trustee Award, an honorary Grammy presented to individuals for nonperformance contributions to the music industry. The award was bestowed on the Jim Marshall estate in 2014 in recognition of Marshall's unprecedented chronicling of music history from the 1950s through the early 2000s.

ABOUT SFJAZZ

Founded in 1983, SFJAZZ presents the greatest names in jazz, Latin and global music and nurtures the art of improvisation through its year-round concert, commissioning and education programs. The West Coast’s biggest jazz presenter serves over 200,000 fans and students every year and has several award-winning resident jazz ensembles- the world renowned SFJAZZ Collective and the SFJAZZ High School All-Stars.

Photo Credit: Michael Ricci

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