Faces of Jazz: A Tribute

If you like jazz, you'll appreciate this book. It is an art book with forty-four portraits of jazz musicians. The portraits are executed in an accessible representational style and are done in oil. Each painting is accompanied with quotes by musicians and other personalities. The prose is written by the author. Many of the paintings are painted with a limited palette, mostly earth tones: umber, ochre and sienna. The dark umber background isolates the musicians and gives the painting a feeling of dark jazz clubs with the spotlight on the performer. A few are almost monochromatic, done in sepia tone that evokes another era; see "Brew Moore," (page 15) and "Grant Green," (page 28). The author's passion for jazz is obvious and his artistic ability evident. The portraits are quite formal with focus on individual expressions capturing the concentration, intensity and energy of each musician. The quotes refer to music and jazz in particular. One by Ahmad Alaadeen is spot on: "Jazz does not belong to one race or one culture, but is a gift that America has given the world." Among the humorous is: "I'm very glad to have met you. I like your playing very much," by Charlie Parker to Jean-Paul Sartre. Another by Dexter Gordon brings a smile, "I hope we left you something to put under your pillow." In a prose piece, the author alludes to a chance meeting with Chet Baker on a Sausalito (CA) rooftop: "A trumpet player with combed back hair, red-eyed/Matinee-idol looks/High cheekbones, almost pretty--." The Baker portrait, (page 35) echoes the apt description--almost pretty. The original project, which began in 2004, was to be an alphabet of favorite jazz people. After completing a few portraits, it was evident that twenty-six portraits was too limiting. In fact, the author has completed nearly 60 portraits. It's likely another volume is forthcoming. Although there are numerous publications with jazz photographs, (on which these portraits are based), there are few with paintings of jazz people. The book reflects the author's respect and reverence for jazz. For him, "painting jazz greats while listening to their music is as good as it gets!"

Rudy Browne is a painter of people. His medium is oil. All the portraits in Faces of Jazz (not already in private collections) are for sale. He can be contacted at: rudybrowne@hotmail.com and fineartamerica.com/rudybrowne.