Portraits shot at the right moment are like the fermata on a pitch perfect note.
Les McCann, jazz musician and photographer, was able to capture such moments of intimacy from legendary jazz singers and musicians. Feast your eyes on the first look of our finished cover art to McCann's retrospective, Invitation to Openness, curated and introduced by Pat Thomas (Listen Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975). Cannonball Adderley, Dizzy Gillespie, Donald Dean, and Nina Simone (as well as comedian Redd Foxx) grace the cover, a tiny sampling of the vast array of photographs that McCann took throughout his career.
Invitation to Openness is coming soon from Fantagraphics, a refrain you'll read and hear often until its March release, striking a chord within the hearts of photography fans and lovers of jazz alike.