Photo © Herman Leonard
Herman Leonard, one of the most prominent jazz photographers of the 20th century who became famous for capturing musical greats like Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, Dizzy Gillespie and Billie Holiday, has died at a hospital in Los Angeles. He was 87.
Leonard passed away Saturday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in LA, said a family spokesperson on his website. Leonard had moved to Los Angeles from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina flooded his home and destroyed thousands of his photographic prints.
Widely regarded as one of the greatest music scene photographers of the mid-20th century, Leonard is most known for his shots of jazz and vocal greats performing in smoky blues clubs throughout the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s. Moving between Paris, London and New York, Leonard’s photographs displayed his signature smoky, back-lit style that is now part of the era’s unmistakable look.
As super-producer Quincy Jones recalls, “I used to tell cats that Herman Leonard did with his camera what we did with our instruments. Looking back across his career, I’m even more certain of the comparison: Herman’s camera tells the truth, and makes it swing. Musicians loved to see him around. No surprise; he made us look good.”
130 of Leonard’s photographs are in the Smithsonian’s permanent collection. His most enduring images include Frank Sinatra brooding in the recording studio, Ella Fitzgerald singing in a packed club while Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman sit enraptured, and Louis Armstrong with a bottle of champagne. In 1956 he was Marlon Brando’s personal photographer on the actor’s trip to Asia.
Even after more than six decades as a photographer, Leonard later admitted that he still got the same rush when he looked at his photographs. As he said in an interview just last year, “It is amazing how an image can revive the feeling of the moment. The thrill of actually being there has never left me.”