Esmond Edwards

Esmond Edwards parlayed his achievement being a jazz professional photographer right into a second profession being a manufacturer, helming periods for John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Delivered Oct 29, 1927, to Jamaican parents on function project in Nassau, Bahamas, Edwards spent his formative years in his family’s indigenous Kingston ahead of their relocation to Harlem. While learning radiology at the town College of NY, he pursued his burgeoning desire for pictures, turning his video camera on the neighborhood jazz community. Edwards’ photos of local music artists and dancers had been quickly a staple of magazines ranging from the brand new York Occasions to Photography, eventually gracing a large number of LP sleeves aswell. His work regularly captured topics at their easiest and romantic, with a unique level of sensitivity that underscored the photographer’s deep understanding and devotion for the jazz idiom. In 1957 Edwards adopted drummer Arthur Taylor in to the Prestige Information studios for a well planned take. Prestige owner Bob Weinstock was therefore used by Edwards’ function that he provided a job using the label, and after starting like a clerk he quickly climbed his method to a creation position. As well as the above-mentioned functions, Edwards’ impressive set of Prestige credits also contains times for Shirley Scott, Lou Donaldson, and Jack port McDuff, in addition to several others. In 1967, he was appointed mind of MGM’s Verve subsidiary, among the 1st African-Americans to carry this type of high-ranking placement within a significant label. 3 years later on, Edwards relocated to Chicago to simply accept a posture as vice chief executive of A&R for Chess Information, collaborating with blues and R&B legends including Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, and B.B. Ruler. In 1977, Edwards also obtained a Grammy nomination for his creation focus on the cast recording from the Tony Award-winning musical Your Hands Too Brief to Package with God. After pension Edwards and his wife resolved in Santa Barbara, CA, where he passed on on January 27, 2007, carrying out a long struggle with cancer.