A quick shout out to all you Jim Marshall and Rolling Stones devotees out there, especially in the NY-NJ Metro area. Tonight in New York City at the Steven Kasher Gallery in Chelsea, Jim Marshall’s much-anticipated Rolling Stones and Beyond exhibition opens with a reception from 6 p.m to 8 p.m.
After Jim passed away – it’s hard to believe he’s been gone more than two years now – it was left to Amelia Davis and Bonita Passarelli to deal with the sudden grief, the business particulars and challenges and, most importantly, hunker down to protect his legacy. First and foremost, that legacy hinged on his body of work and archive, but the work also included all of Jim’s personal effects, his gear and his treasured belongings and collections, including a rather eclectic collection of nearly 1,000 albums that highlighted many of his personal greatest hits, so to speak.
I’m rounding up our final Carlos Santana-centric blog this month focusing on the skill that got him his first notice, his riveting, instantly recognizable guitar playing and improvising. One of the many things that distinguished Jim’s talent as a photographer, especially in his early years, was his extraordinary knack for recognizing talent very early, gaining the trust of those talented artists and musicians, and forging lifelong connections and collaborations with them.
“It’s time for people to realize that we are all mixed up inside. That is why there is so much diversity on my records. I can relate to so many cultures and I want that to be reflected in my music.” — Carlos Santana
For the month of May we’re going to focus on Jim’s relationship, both in front of and behind the camera, with one of the San Francisco music scene’s most enduring stars: Carlos Santana.
Throughout the highs and lows, thicks and thins of life with Jim, there can be no dispute that Carlos always stood by him; a great and loyal friend. I can speak to this directly because I saw it up close and personal.
Today’s blog wraps up our coverage of Jim’s early work covering jazz, specifically as the official photographer of the Monterey Jazz Festival of 1963. The more I’ve looked at and studied this early work of Jim's, the more I see how he was intent on making connections and creating a sense of intimacy, a feeling of family. I always chalked his fascination with family up to Jim’s fraught childhood, his black sheep status and how upset he remained throughout his whole life over his lack of siblings.
By 1963 Jim was living in NYC and enjoying one of his most productive periods as a photojournalist, specializing in documenting all genres of entertainers and beyond. However, the Monterey Jazz Festival of that year managed to lure him back home to Northern California with the prospect of once-again serving as the festival’s official photographer. Jim had been the official photographer at the 1960 festival as well, which I focused on in the these past two blogs:
“You’ve got to find a way of saying it without saying it.” – Duke Ellington Jim’s output from his initial foray to the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1960 was so prolific we needed to split it into two batches, leaving some of the heavier hitters and headliners for this week’s blog. And, at the time, who was heavier than Duke Ellington?
There is so much of Jim’s early work to love and find inspiring, but for me the real power and passion lies in the body of work he created in the early ’60s documenting the jazz greats, their supporting casts, adoring fans and even the tools of their trade.
