Original image by There Stands the Glass.
Between my unkempt hair, tatty attire and weather-beaten face, I’m occasionally mistaken for an indigent person. Charitable do-gooders regularly offer me assistance as I wander the downtowns of America. I fit right in when I visited the Central branch of Multnomah County Library yesterday.
Two unhoused men were engaged in a violent clash over a shopping cart on the steps of the magnificent building in downtown Portland. Rather than joining the mob of amused derelicts shouting encouragement to the combatants, I asked the three police officers stationed at the door directions to Carl Henniger’s photography exhibit.
I traversed a gauntlet of catatonic zombies, raving lunatics and menacing miscreants to reach the We Had Jazz gallery on the library's third floor. The gorgeous black-and-white photos of jazz musicians taken in the 1950s affirm that Portland- then as well as now- is supportive of touring jazz musicians.
Subjects range from the first-generation jazz giant Louis Armstrong to a young John Coltrane. A shot of Dizzy Gillespie and Count Basie studying a chess board in 1953 is my favorite image. Almost all of the iconic musicians dressed to the nines. I was by turns inspired and humiliated when I reentered the chaos outside.