Geoffrey from New York

About me I travel to discover how people elsewhere live, how they manage living with low incomes in expensive cities, how they grapple with hard times and failing economies, how they deal with ageing or crumbling families and how they themselves age and adapt. Knowing and loving New York comes from having lived through many of its manifestations while witnessing its changes....

Aug 26, 2025

"A Great Day in Harlem" Site New York

Historic jazz site

""A Great Day in Harlem" is an important photo of 58 jazz greats taken in 1958 in NYC. The building on 126th Street where it was taken is still there..."

When you're up in Harlem, passing time, absorbing the vibe, slow moving, you ought to amble over to the block of 126th Street between Fifth and Madison Avenue, number 17, the address where Art Kane, then not yet a professional photographer, took the historic, important photo of 58 jazz greats on its stoop. There is a film of the event, an Oscar nominated 1994 documentary, A Great Day in Harlem that will open your eyes to the importance of that day. One of its notable comments is by Art Farmer who said he's amazed to realize who is no longer physically here, but is considered to be very much here: "they are in us and they will always be alive" due to their musical contributions to the genre.

It features 58 of New York's hottest jazz musicians --- and there were quite a few more who didn't make it up there that day.

This terrific site shows the famous photograph annotated: if you place your cursor on any face, and click, you are led to that musician's name and a clip of them playing --- all 58.

The photo was taken August 12, 1958, and published in Esquire magazine January 1959.

Nearby, within a few blocks are: Sisters restaurant, American Legion Post 398, Shrine, the National Black Theater, Ginny's Super Club, Paris Blues, the National Jazz Museum and the Studio Museum of Harlem.

Art & culture

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About this spot

East 126th Street 17

free:

US$

free

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