BRATTLEBORO — Jean Germain, the official photographer of the Sarasota Jazz Festival, has collected the best and most evocative images of her quarter century career photographing celebrated jazz performers and assembled them in her book “Jazz From Row Six: Photographs 1981-2007.”
For each copy of the book by Germain, mother of Brattleboro resident Wendy Germain, that is sold, a full $10 of the $30 purchase price will now directly go to support the education programs of the Vermont Jazz Center.
From her seat in row six at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Center in Sarasota, Fla., Jean Germain photographed numerous legendary musicians in the twilight of their long careers, as well as a new generation of jazz performers.
Her award-winning work has appeared in juried shows, corporate collections and numerous publications. Germain is a member of the Sarasota Arts Council and belongs to several Sarasota arts organizations, the Photographic Resource Center at Boston University, and The Photography Center at Woodstock, N.Y.
Sixty-five musicians are caught in the act in “Jazz From Row Six” in more than 100 photographs, including Tito Puente, Marian McPartland, George Shearing, Lionel Hampton, Diana Krall, Joe Williams, and Cleo Laine.
The book is introduced by Dick Hyman, a jazz pianist perhaps best known as the composer for Woody Allen's films.
Germain said she didn't set out to become a photographer. She moved to Sarasota after a career in education. One day, over a game of tennis, she met Benny Goodman's former publicist Hal Davis. He asked her if she liked jazz. She said she didn't know it all that well, but she did grow up in New York, and was familiar with jazz culture and some jazz records.
Out of this chance encounter, she and Davis started a record sharing club. This grew into the Jazz Club of Sarasota, which sponsored the Sarasota Jazz Festival. Every year, the hugely popular festival sold out the 1,743-seat Van Wezel Performing Arts Center.
When it became apparent someone should document these events for the club's newsletter, Germain became the official photographer.
“Jean was the staff photographer of the Sarasota Jazz Festival from 1981 until 2007,” explains Eugene Uman, artistic director of Vermont Jazz Center. “Originally she knew nothing about photography.” But when she was given a permanent seat in the middle of row six with her camera, she quickly learned.
Over the years, she became an accomplished photographer who developed clever ways to work around the quirks of the space and the limitations of her camera equipment. Germain shot all her photographs on film, and never tried digital photography.
“Van Wezel Performing Arts Center is such a large space that it is difficult to negotiate photographs, and she had to learn how to experiment with light and film to get suitable pictures,” Uman says. “For instance, Afro-Americans' dark features are notoriously difficult to adequately capture under stage lighting. She developed techniques to bring out the best in the performers. She ultimately amassed a huge quantity of irreplaceable materials.”
Yet, when she was approached by a book publisher who wanted to put out a volume collecting her work, she was initially shocked at the interest in her photographs. Once assured of the venture's historic importance, she and Dick Hyman worked together to select the best and most interesting images.
George T. Simon, author of “The Big Bands,” said of Germain's work, “You know what's so good and so refreshing about these pictures? Unlike too many arty or posed shots, these natural-looking visual insights give you a real feeling of what these creative people were really like.”
Uman adds, “Germain is great in documenting the interaction of older generation of jazz performers with the new, the relation between mentors and their protégés.”
“My mother's photographs chronicled a particular time in jazz that no one else has seemed to document,” say Wendy Germain, Jean's daughter. “It mixes some of the last performances of the older generation of jazz performers from the big band era with some of the newer performers, who now would be in their 40s and 50s. For instance, she caught the very last performance of the legendary Eartha Kitt. I remember that show. Eartha Kitt pulled apart her dress to show off her legs, saying, 'I'm still some sexy lady at 80.' It was a very heartwarming performance.”
Uman explains the remarkable story of how Germain decided to donate proceeds from “Jazz From Row 6” to the Vermont Jazz Center:
“Jean spends half of the year in Sarasota and the other half in the Berkshires. So as fate would have it, my mom bumped into her at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival. As two proud moms often do, they both began talking about their children. Jean said that her daughter Wendy has recently moved to Brattleboro, and my mom said that it was where I lived and worked, as director of the Vermont Jazz Center.”
Wendy Germain adds that when her mother “subsequently met Eugene, she was very taken by his personality and drive, and most particularly with the educational programs at the Jazz Center. She then decided to donate a third of every book sold to VJC's education project.”
Uman said he is very proud of the great honor for the Vermont Jazz Center to be the recipient of proceeds from what he deems “this gorgeous art book.”
“Jazz From Row Six” holds the distinction of having been named a President's Book Award winner and an Indie Book Award finalist. More recently, the book was honored as an award winner in the “Photography: People” category of the 2010 International Book Awards.
“My mother always wanted to give proceeds from the book to a nonprofit,” Wendy Germain says.