Good Music Ain't Hard to Find: Adam and Kat Hawley are The TRUTH

I am a huge jazz guitar fan.  My love affair with jazz began with Wes Montgomery.  So I am biased when it comes to my favorite artists. I have a new favorite and it is Adam Hawley.  This brother is the truth.  I became hip to Adam when he hit Billboard #1 with his 35th Street jam off of his debut release Just the Beginning.  I checked out the album I was blown away from start to finish.

When I heard he was coming to Atlanta I made it my business to be there.  I had been in church all day but I drug myself and my camera to the Velvet Note.  I met the brother and his family and you could feel the love immediately.  A real good brother who loves his wife and his family, you can see it and feel it.  This love I felt after meeting them was transferred to the stage.  What a performance.

There is something special about a very talented artist who loves the music and the people they perform with and for.  Adam cares about those who come to see him.  He reaches out and touches you when he plays.  He is such a gifted musician that you don’t even notice how hard he is working because the musicianship is just that good. He makes that guitar do things that make even a novice go…WTH!  

When he and his wife, Kat, perform together you see the love and respect they have for each other.  They take you to a place with them as their two souls unite on stage. I say this while realizing all the connotations of this phrase, there is a sacredness about the Hawley family and I thank the creator for this union.  To sum this up. If you don’t have the album Just the Beginning - get it today.  Stream it today.  If Adam Hawley is coming to a town near you drive, catch an uber, walk, run / jog you want to experience this brother all the way LIVE! 

The future of jazz is in good hands.  We have to support these artists and their work.  Will you join me in supporting my brother?  Will you buy the album?  Stream it on Spotify, Apple Music…will you do that today? A star is born...give him some shine.

Seeing Jazz: The History of Jazz Photography....carrying on the tradition

Seeing Jazz: 

The History of Jazz Photography....carrying on the tradition

I am so thankful for Benjamin Cawthra’s book Blue Notes in Black and White:  Photography and Jazz because this book helps me see the history of what I do.  I am a photographer who has a rich and deep connection to jazz.  Jazz was the music that I feel in love with as a kid in the 1960s.  As a baby my father would sit me beside the speakers of his record player and let the smooth sounds of Wes Montgomery quiet a crying child.  I was that child and Wes Montgomery was my comforter.

I find myself in my mid-fifties and I am still in love with jazz.  As a photographer jazz is one of my main subjects and Cawthra’s book has helped me wrap my mind and eyes around the history of jazz photography.  While I knew of the artist he writes about, both musicians and photographers, I needed his work to help me put the big picture together. The book gives you a timeline and way to walk thought the history of jazz and jazz photography in context.  The color and context of jazz comes to life in this work.

This book also helped me see what is next.  I am not just collecting images of jazz artists but rather I am creating a visual story that speaks to the past, present and future of jazz in historical context.  My images are a part of this great legacy and I must treat this work as a child of those who have come before me.  The great photographers whose work Cawthra’s helps me see is so important to be familiar with.  As a modern artist I am not creating new work but rather I am creating work that is connected to the past. 

Artist must know their history because in knowing your history you see how you and your work are connected.  Your work is what is next but it can’t be separated from what came before.  As we look back at our artistic history it informs our work and we begin to see and shoot in relationship to our ancestors and elders. Cawthra’s book brings those great artist from the past to life. This is a life giving book and I thank God for the life it gave me. What is that story that you are a part of? What came before you and your work that you need to consult in order to create?

Blue Notes in Black and White