William P. Gottlieb has been called the “Dean of Jazz Photography.” His work has been acclaimed by a wide array of jazz notables such as Ken Burns, Wynton Marsalis, and Jim Cullum and publications including the The New York Times, Modern Photography, and The New Yorker. Read some of what they have said about Gottlieb’s work and legacy.
"Gottlieb stopped photographing jazz musicians in 1948.
No one has surpassed him yet."
Whitney Balliett, The New Yorker
"[William Gottlieb] can communicate the meaning of a moment in an image. Only the greatest photographers have that ability...
You feel like you were there."
Wynton Marsalis, Musician and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center
"You can hear the music through Bill's photos."
Jason Koransky, Editor, Downbeat
"William Gottlieb stands as a key figure in Jazz history. His passion for his art and for jazz drove him to a high degree of excellence.
In the process he captured the essence of the times and
magnificent images of the musicians who made the music."
Jim Cullum, Jim Cullum Jazz Band
"Jazz music itself is immortal: with these wonderful photographs, the remarkable human beings who made that music are, too.
That's Bill Gottlieb's art."
Ken Burns, Epic Documentarian, Filmmaker, and Historian
"The great photographers of jazz are those who catch ...emotion. It's that tension of emotion and beat that is caught in Gottlieb's photography."
Leonard Garment, Chairman, The National Jazz Museum in Harlem
"[William Gottlieb] was more successful in his approach than any photographer has been, bringing to bear the personal connections --
his relationship with the subject's own personality."
Jon Newsom, Director of the Music Division, Library of Congress
"Who is Billie Holiday? Look at Bill's shots.
Who is Charlie Parker? Look at Bill's shots."
Jason Koransky, Editor, Downbeat
"Anyone who has ever attempted to depict the essence of someone's personality on film knows how difficult it can be,
but Gottlieb managed to do so, gloriously, more than a few times."
W. Patrick Hinely, Jazz Journalists Association
"What strikes me most is [Gottlieb's] love of the music...and trying to capture the personality [of the musician]. It comes out in every photograph--
this sense of trying to capture a real person making music."
Tom Chapin, Musician
"It was to be William P. Gottlieb who would capture with his own instrument, the camera, the soul of this jazz, its voices, its prophets, its players, Bill who would become the chronicler of the Golden Age."
Eve's Magazine
The New York Times credits Bill with "the flair of a high artist."
"William Gottlieb's photos are some of the most famous jazz photos of all time, ones which set the standard for jazz photography."
Jim Wilke, Host of Jazz After Hours, PRI
"Not only was [Gottlieb] in the right place at the right time, but he is an incredible talent, and that combination resulted in
the most important jazz images existing today. "
Jeff Sedlik, Jazz photographer
"The fact that Bill's photographs exist, allows [the musicians]
to remain icons in the 21st century."
Phil Schapp, Curator, Jazz at Lincoln Center
"William Gottlieb's dynamic images are an invaluable record of jazz..."
Ann M. Shumard, Curator of Photographs,
Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery
"[Bill] loved the taking of the pictures. He loved getting it right and getting the proper feeling out of the pictures. That is his great contribution to the history of jazz. The history of jazz is contained in those pictures."
Ahmet Ertegun, Founder of Atlantic Records
"In nightclubs and concert halls, William Gottlieb captured
the most intimate moments of America's indigenous music."
W. Royal Stokes, Civilization magazine
"Whether he intended to or not... [Bill] became a historian."
Leonard DeLessio, Professor of Photography, School of Visual Arts
"Not only did [Bill] have an eye but he also really had the respect and confidence of the performers who never felt ... he was intruding."
Dan Morgenstern, Director, Rutgers Institute of Jazz
"[Bill Gottlieb] knew these people. He had talked to them and he knew what their personalities were. He knew who all of them were."
Jason Koransky, Editor, Downbeat
"The thing I love about Bill's photographs is that he's not afraid of the musicians. He embraced the musicians as human beings.
So he brings them out with a certain confidence.
This is a time where images of African Americans were all minstrel show.
The jazz photographer was the exact opposite. He is always projecting the people with confidence and with the magisterial quality that they had."
Wynton Marsalis, Musician and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center
"We are so lucky that there was ... a Bill Gottlieb there at that time to document. You've got to remember that there were no headlines in the paper in those days saying this is the 'golden era of jazz'
and it's going to be gone someday."
Loren Schoenberg, Executive Director, The National Jazz Museum at Harlem
"[Bill] is a very special kind of person with a very special legacy.
We're very lucky he preserved all these things."
Dan Morgenstern, Director, Rutgers Institute of Jazz
"Bill Gottlieb's photographs are a part of the cinema of jazz."
Leonard Garment, Chairman, The National Jazz Museum in Harlem
Although he hasn't photographed jazz musicians in more than 50 years,
Bill Gottlieb, in Modern Photography, was labeled
"The Great Jazz Photographer."
"The images, the way that [Bill] presented jazz has a lot to do with
the general public perception as to what jazz is.
The coolness of it, the hipness of it, the mystery..."
Jason Koransky, Editor, Downbeat
"The [Gottlieb] photographs stand as a testament to
the soul of the music in the soul of time."
Wynton Marsalis, Musician and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center
"[Gottlieb's] black and white images of the jazz life are without parallel..."
"You can almost feel the pop and the heat of the flashbulbs
in each [Gottlieb] image."
"Some of Gottlieb's images are as famous as the musicians themselves."
"[Bill] will be best remembered as the sharp-eyed witness to one of the most creative musical decades in American history."
David Was, NPR's Day to Day
"Bill Gottlieb ranks as one of the most important jazz photographers in the world. The breadth, depth and quality of Bill's body of work is outstanding."
Jeff Sedlik, Jazz photographer
"[Gottlieb's images] are indeed national treasures."
W. Patrick Hinely, Jazz Journalists Association
"Gottlieb was not taking pictures; he was photographing a music."
Whitney Balliett, The New Yorker
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