WILLIAM GOTTLIEB
William Gottlieb’s remarkable ability to show the soul and energy of jazz goes back to his roots as a journalist for The Washington Post. Covering the music beat in his weekly column, Gottlieb traveled with the Big Bands and frequented Harlem’s legendary jazz clubs. Passionate about the artists and their new forms, Bill made photographs that reveal America’s musical giants from a uniquely intimate perspective.
Bill’s photographs seem familiar to us because we have seen them in newspapers, television documentaries, magazines, museums, and on over 250 album covers. Four images became postage stamps last year. And we will be seeing them again soon in ken Burns’ upcoming PBS series on Jazz.
Gottlieb’s archive of some 2,000 black and white images was recently acquired by the Library of Congress. It is the source for The Golden Age of Jazz, his definitive portrait of the times now in its twelfth printing.
BIOGRAPHY
Born:
1917-2005; Brooklyn, NY
Education:
Lehigh University, 1938, B.S. Economics
Selected Exhibitions:
2006
20/30 Vision: An Anniversary Celebration; Bonni Benrubi Gallery, New York, NY
2003
Portraits from the Golden Age of Jazz: William Gottlieb; Florida International Museum, St. Petersburg, FL
Portraits from the Golden Age of Jazz: William Gottlieb; Flint Institute of Art, Flint, MI
Legends; A Gallery for Fine Photography, New Orleans, LA
2002
The Golden Age of Jazz: William Gottlieb, Sheldon Art Galleries, St. Louis , MO
Let’s Have Lunch; COPIA Center For Wine, Food & the Arts, Napa, CA
Jazz: William Gottlieb & Chuck Stewart; Candace Perich Gallery, Katonah, NY
Introductions: Photographs by William Gottlieb; Schapiro Gallery, San Francisco, CA
The Gift of Photography; Peter Fetterman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2001
Let’s Have Lunch; Bonni Benrubi Gallery, NYC
New York Jazz Witness: William Gottlieb; Navio Museum, Osaka, Japan
2000
Bright Lights, Big City, Winston Wachter Mayer Fine Art, NYC
Photograph + Monograph, Bonni Benrubi Gallery, NYC, NY
New York Jazz Witness: William Gottlieb; Tokyo, Japan
1999
Bright Lights, Big City, Winston Wachter Fine Art, Seattle, WA
Museum of Modern Art, Stockholm, Sweden
Jazz Photogrpahs by Bill Gottlieb; Center for Visual Communication, Deutsche Bank, NYC
1998
"Flashback: The Fifties", Bonni Benrubi Gallery, NYC
The Golden Age of Jazz: William P. Gottlieb; Govinda Gallery, Washington, DC
Summer Salon V: Pictures We Like; Bonni Benrubi Gallery, NYC
1997
Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York, NY
Jazz: William Gottlieb, Herman Leonard & William Claxton; Amerika Haus Galerie, Berlin, Germany
1995
Jazz Era Photographs: William Gottlieb; Kennedy Center for the Arts, Washington, DC
Monograph:
The Golden Age of Jazz, Pomegranate Art books, San Francisco, 1995
12th edition, 2003
Publications:
The Great Jazz Day; Charles Grahm, DaCapo Press, 2002
Jazz Styles: History and Analysis Mark C. Gridley, Prentice Hall, 2002
Birth of the Cool: Beat, Bebop and American Avant Garde; Lewis McAdams, Free Press, 2001
"What’d I Say": The Atlantic Story; Ahmet Ertegun, Welcome Rain, 2001
Giant Steps: Bebop and the Creators of Modern Jazz, 1945-65; Cannongate, 2000
Icons of Jazz; Dave Gelly, Thunder Bay, 2000
Satchmo; Gary Giddins, Da Capo Press, 2000
"Sinatra in the Studio"; Bill Gottlieb, Down Beat Magazine, August, 1998
"Ahmet Ertegum" Vanity Fair, January, 1998
"Treasure Island, Jazz Supplement," Village Voice, June 9, 1998
Two dozen images included in the Ken Burns documentary: Jazz, 1995
Twenty one separate anthology books including several images
1997 U.S. Postage stamps
The New York Times
The New Yorker
New York City Life
Chicago Tribune
Washington Post
Downbeat Magazine
Billboard Magazine, cover may 30, 1998
Jazz Times
Eve’s magazine
Record Changer magazine
Rolling Stone
Awards:
Lifetime Achievement Award from Downbeat Magazine to his contributions to the world of jazz