WELCOME

If this is your first visit, welcome to my blog of memories and observations. If you wish to be notified of new posts, enter an e-mail address above, and click on "Submit." As we move through a seventh year of this venture, I thank all who have made regular visits, as well as fellow bloggers who have found Stomp Off worth linking to. Doing this sort of thing is time-consuming, but I try to post fresh material at least once a week—let me know what you think. There is a Commentary option at the end of each post and a Guest Book can be reached by scrolling down and clicking on the quill image. I welcome your observations, reaction and/or suggestions in either spot—or both. As for blog content, the most current posts are on the home page, starting at the top. Earlier items are listed by month, year and title in the archive index. To zero in on a particular key word or subject, use the search option that is located directly beneath the blog's masthead. Most images can be enlarged with a mouse click, and there are links to some of my favorite blogs, etc. Since visitors have come from 150 countries, a translator with numerous languages is located below. You can at any time revert to English with a click at the top left of this page:

Search This Blog

8/15/09

Ole Brask has died

Perusing the latest issue of Jazz Special, an exemplary Danish monthly, I sadly learned that Ole Brask has passed away, just a few days before his 74th birthday.

Ole was not well known in the U.S., but he contributed many memorable photos to the jazz album. I first met Ole almost 50 years ago, when John Tchicai introduced us. John, too, was new to the U.S., working as a chef at Copenhagen Restaurant. Ole was a quiet, unassuming man, but it didn't take him long to get into the right professional circles. His resume grew fast and impressively included: Richard Avedon, Magnum, ABC's
20/20, CBS' 60 Minutes, etc. When his assignments began to take him all over the world, we somehow lost track. In 1863, when I moved to my present apartment, Ole took over my old place on West 81st Street, just off Central Park. It was a $17-a-week room with bath on the top floor of a brownstone, and it had a v-shaped window that allowed one to look up and down the street. I spent many hours in that little window nook.

Here's a picture I took last year, just before they changed the building's facade.

And this is the little window nook from the inside. Ole placed Archie Shepp there for an album cover.



















Many of Ole's wonderful photos can be found in Jazz People, a 1976 collaboration with Dan Morgenstern.

1 comment:

  1. R.I.P
    From a child of a friend of Ole Brask.
    Later I did meet Ole on several occasions.
    He was a great photographer!
    Do anyone know where his legacy went?

    ReplyDelete