A Visual Ode to the Vitality of Jazz

In 1973, the 33-year-old jazz buff and fledgling producer Hank O’Neal teamed up with the veteran guitarist, bandleader, and raconteur Eddie Condon to produce “The Eddie Condon Scrapbook.” One of the most entertaining books on the history of jazz, this essential volume combined rare photographs and other vintage imagery with an even more valuable treasure trove of anecdotage from one of the music’s most colorful characters.Mr. O’Neal waited 50 years to follow Condon’s tome with a new work that could easily be titled “The Hank O’Neal Scrapbook.” As with the Condon scrapbook, there are both amazing visuals and amusing tales of all the remarkable individuals Mr. O’Neal has interacted with over the course of a musical career that has stretched from the 1960s to today.In the vast literature of jazz, there are relatively few memoirs by the many producers, promoters, and other behind-the-scenes folks that have made such a vital contribution to the music. Perhaps the two most essential are “John Hammond on Record,” by the most storied talent scout in all of American music, and “Myself Among Others” by George Wein, the man who virtually invented and undisputedly perfected the jazz festival.Tony Bennett and Earl Hines, photographed by Hank O’Neal. ScreenshotThe list is much longer of music men whom we wish had written down their own stories, like Norman Granz, one of the few individuals who got rich recording jazz and, even more remarkably, seems to have never ripped anyone off. There’s also the late George Avakian, who was a vivid storyteller and almost lived long enough to celebrate his own centennial, yet who, even in his later years, could never sit still long enough to finish a book. Don McGlynn is currently completing a full biography of Irving Mills—now that will be a heck of a read.Compared to some of the aforementioned characters, Hank O’Neal has enjoyed a more modest but no less meaningful career. Unlike Granz and Wein, none of his efforts ever led to the founding of a musical empire which thrives to this day. But Mr. O’Neal served a very vital role as a consistently excellent photographer, a frequent writer and journalist, and the producer and occasional engineer of hundreds of well-remembered jazz albums. He also was the force behind the first great jazz cruise event, which he called “the floating jazz festival” and ran for fully 20 years.Mr. O’Neal’s “More Than the Music” does indeed take the general format of a scrapbook. Borrowing the general format of Duke Ellington’s “Music Is My Mistress,” it’s organized as a set of reminiscences involving the many major musicians — and other figures connected to the music — the author has spent quality time with, both personally and professionally, over the last seven decades.Mr. O’Neal, who turned 86 this past weekend, includes a lot of marquee names, like Dizzy Gillespie, Les Paul, and Dave Brubeck; all of these giants have been written about extensively, yet Mr. O’Neal gives us a new and very personal perspective.Even more valuable, Mr. O’Neal shares a lot of information about somewhat marginal but fascinating figures like Squirrel Ashcraft and Sherman Fairchild. The former was always a mystery to me: an amateur pianist, he staged lavish jam sessions, many of which he recorded and issued semi-privately, but it was always hard to pin down exactly who he really was. It turns out that this was somewhat intentional: Ashcraft’s day job was with the CIA, so he deliberately kept a low profile. Not coincidentally, Mr. O’Neal also served for 15 years in that agency.This is the rare book in which Allen Ginsberg gets equal time with Clint Eastwood. I was particularly gratified to see a chapter on Hugh Hefner; few entrepreneurs and patrons have done as much for the music as Hef, even though his overall reputation has been unfairly tarnished in the last few years. This is also the rare book in which it’s fully worth the time to go through the whole shebang from cover to cover at least twice. The first time, you’ll want to concentrate on the text without lingering too long on the imagery, and the second time, vice versa. There are all manner of visual delights here for the hardcore jazz fan; not only rare 78 labels and album covers, but alternative shots to some of our favorite LP jackets. There are dozens of Mr. O’Neal’s excellent photos, many previously unpublished.No less than the Condon book, “More Than the Music” is another treasure trove for jazz lovers, especially if the music of Jabbo Smith, Joe Venuti, Earl Hines, or Zoot Sims — or, for that matter, the designs of Paul Bacon and the paintings of George Wettling — has any meaning for you. There are few books I’ve read that so well illuminate, both verbally and visually, the endless vitality of this music that we call jazz.

A Visual Ode to the Vitality of Jazz

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