Author Bio

Hank O'Neal, President of Chiaroscuro Records and HOSS, Inc., has produced over 200 jazz LPs and CDs and over 100 music festivals. Books of his own photos include several jazz titles and Gay Day: The Golden Age of the Christopher Street Parade. He is also the author of several books on photographer Berenice Abbott.

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Main Description

From 1985 to the present, Hank O'Neal interviewed 42 jazz legends who made music in Harlem during its heyday and decline. In their homes or immediate neighborhoods, he took their portraits with a large-format view camera and talked with them about what had been the best places to play, the interaction of the races, and about why the Harlem scene had faded.

For each 'session' with a jazz legend, O'Neal has supplemented the interview and portraits with many of his other photographs, historical photographs and memorabilia. From the archives of Chiaroscuro Records, O'Neal has produced a CD that accompanies the book, which features sixteen of the 'ghosts' playing at the ends of their careers, between 1972 and 1996, including Cab Calloway, Milt Hinton, Doc Cheatham, Dizzy Gillespie, Buddy Tate, Eddie Barefield, Earl Hines, and Illinois Jacquet.

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Reviews

".Hank O'Neal's The Ghosts of Harlem offers an unblinking look at the end of a fabled era."
--NOTES: Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association

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"Brings back alive--in interviews and photographs--the very life rhythms of a time in Harlem that continues to deeply resonate in this international language."
--Nat Hentoff, co-editor, Hear Me Talkin' to Ya, The Story of Jazz As Told by the Men Who Made It

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"This is a must read for all those interested in Harlem's role in the development of jazz, whether they are aficionados or new fans."
--Arthur H. Barnes, Chairman, The National Jazz Museum in Harlem

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"Hank O'Neal's loving portraits, visual and verbal, capture the spirit and soul of the Harlem that once was."
--Dan Morgenstern, Director, Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University

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"The Ghosts of Harlem is a definitive work because at long last we're hearing forty-three important musicians tell us about their work in their own words. The illustrative photographs are amazing and Hank O'Neal's large format portraits are extraordinary. This is a book of historic significance and I recommend it to anyone interested in the development of jazz in America."
--Bruce Lundvall, President & CEO, EMI Jazz & Classics

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Discovering Lost Locations (1996 and 2007)
A Guide to the Interviews
Andy Kirk
Benny Waters
Greely Walton
Tommy Benford
Doc Cheatham
Gene Prince
Ovie Alston
Eddie Durham
Cab Calloway
Benny Carter
Lawrence Lucie
Jonah Jones
Sammy Price
Johnny Williams
Eddie Barefield
Danny Barker
Milt Hinton
Sy Oliver
Buck Clayton
Bill Dillard
Maxine Sullivan
Franz Jackson
Red Richards
Erskine Hawkins
Bobby Williams
Buddy Tate
Al Casey
Harry Edison
George Kelly
Dizzy Gillespie
Jimmy Hamilton
J. C. Heard
Panama Francis
Sammy Lowe
Joe Williams
Al Cobbs
Clark Terry
Billy Taylor
Illinois Jacquet
Frank Wess
Thelma Carpenter
Major Holley
The Survivors (Barefield, Calloway, Cheatham, Hinton)
Photography
Selected Discography
Listening to the Ghosts of Harlem
Acknowledgments
Index

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Extras

***Take a look inside the book here

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***Listen to some of the "Ghosts" on a cut from the CD included with the book: "Good Time Charlie" (from Old Man Time, CR(D) 310): Doc Cheatham, trumpet; Eddie Barefield, alto and tenor saxophones; Buddy Tate, tenor saxophone; Red Richards, piano; Al Casey, guitar; Milt Hinton, bass; Gus Johnson, drums; Cab Calloway, vocal. Recorded 6 March 1990. (3:52)

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***And if you're in New York City on July 28, 2009, don't miss this special event at The Strand Bookstore!

On July 28th, Hank O'Neal's recently published The Ghosts of Harlem will be discussed by three of the foremost authorities in the world of jazz: George Wein, the celebrated producer of the Newport Jazz Festival and thousands of other events over his sixty-plus-year career; Nat Hentoff, the Dean of American jazz  and social critics and Dr. Billy Taylor, the noted pianist, educator and television personality who is also the subject of a section in The Ghosts of Harlem. O'Neal will act as moderator of a discussion that will touch on the golden age of jazz, the golden age of Harlem, the artists who were active in these times and how these men, women and times relates to jazz, others music and social issues in 2009.

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 Speaking of New York, check out the New York Times of July 7, 2009!

 

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