Black + White = Blues Liner Notes #1

3pm on a Friday afternoon. The Symphony Hall bar is a silent assembly of blue/chrome chairs waiting in anticipation. They are anticipating the anticipation of what American jazz critic Whitney Balliett called, "the Sound of Surprise".

By 4:30 the room is alive. A busy hubbub of voices speaking together. This is the sound which best evokes the pre-Rush Hour Blues ambiance. Its the sound of friends meeting, acquaintances chit-chatting, laughter, a groan which accompanies a bad pun.

By 5:30 as the music is about to begin the sound is a cacophony of voices. The blue/chrome chairs are at a premium. Tony Dudley-Evans steps up to the microphone to announce the band. We are off on another Friday Rush Hour Blues adventure.

As a jazz lover it amazes me how much musicians can give of themselves. To a non musician music is a kind of alchemy. A magical mix of physics, mathematics and biology which allows one human being to communicate their feelings to a multitude of others by breathing life into their instrument. By their breath, minds, hands they can conjure beauty out of silence. It has to be the purest, most direct form of communication.

As a photographer I find the musicians relationship to these elements endlessly fascinating. Watching a musician preparing for the gig, in the case of drummers and saxophonists building up their instrument for performance is an interesting observational exercise. The care taken to get things just right is a fascinatingly mundane ritual.

From a photographic point of view the Symphony Hall level 3 bar is a mixed blessing. In Summer the musicians perform before a huge back lit window and the camera wants to reduce them to silhouettes. In Winter that same backdrop is a huge black mirror which seems to want to absorb light rather than give it out. Winter is a test of steady handedness - Summer of exposure control. Its sometimes a frustrating process. That said its been a privilege to make the photographs you see here. How blessed we in Birmingham are to be living at a time when the city is so alive with jazz, when there are so many great musicians on the scene and more coming along.

This exhibition is my way of saying thanks to all of the contributing musicians for hours of wonderful, entertaining and sometimes challenging music. Thanks too must go to Tony Dudley-Evans and his Birmingham Jazz colleagues who do such a great job. Finally to Symphony Hall and Tom Cahill-Jones for providing the perfect venue for Rush Hour Blues.

I hope you enjoy the photographs.

(c) Garry Corbett 2008