The Greatest Jazz Photograph
L-R. Charles Mingus, Roy Haynes, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker. The Open Door. 1953. Photographs by Bob Parent. Charlie Parker was born ninety-seven years ago today in Kansas City. The date makes me think of my favorite jazz photograph, two versions of which are here, by Bob Parent. The Open Door...
The Process of Not Knowing: Conversation with Allan Gurganus
A conversation between Sam and novelist Allan Gurganus, to whom Gene Smith's Sink is dedicated, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux's Works in Progress.
A Year with Swollen Appendices: Brian Eno’s Diary
Published by Faber & Faber. 1996. A friend recommended this book because I'm currently working on an excavation project involving the year 1995 and this is Eno's diary from that year. It's currently out of print. Somebody like New York Review Books should consider republishing it. I read a...
Early Commentary on Gene Smith’s Sink
As a unit, this early group of quotes says a lot.
821 Sixth Ave. July 1, 2017
This snapshot is by Momoko Gill, a drummer who was my interpreter in Japan in 2011 and who plays a key role in the parts of Gene Smith's Sink related to Japan. In town from London, she walked up to the building around 7:30 pm last night during a steady rain.
Thoughtful Words from Matthew Shipp
Matthew Shipp This morning I was cleaning out some files and I came across these words from composer and pianist Matthew Shipp when he introduced my Deems Taylor / Virgil Thomson Award on November 17, 2015 at a ceremony put together by ASCAP in New York City. The award...
Gene Smith’s Sink, Literally
Here's W. Eugene Smith's stainless steel darkroom sink, custom made in the 1950s. In 2012 I had it repurposed into a standing desk by metal artist Leo Gaev who made no changes to the original object. Photos by Kate Joyce, March 2017. (Gene Smith's Sink).
Durham and Art of Cool
L-R, Ivan Weiss, Sam Stephenson interviewing Kamasi Washington in Durham, May 2016. Today Public Books published the latest collaboration between filmmaker Ivan Weiss and me. It's about the gentrification of downtown Durham, framed by a month of festivals. This piece was long in the works, so we're happy to see...
Reading James Agee in Knoxville
I was flattered and thrilled to be asked by Jem Cohen to read the words of James Agee during Jem's Gravity Hill Sound and Image performance last night at Big Ears. Reading those words in Agee's hometown, in the Bijou Theater that he no doubt frequented as a kid, was...
What is Gene Smith doing?
After a couple of years of radio silence here, what better way to return than by offering this photograph of Gene Smith by James Karales circa 1956. Smith is in his backyard in Croton-on-Hudson testing lenses for his large format cameras in preparation for commissions from the American Institute of...
From Fiddlers Convention to Thomas Pynchon
The annual Old Fiddler’s Convention takes place each summer in Galax, Virginia, a mountain town of around 7500 people. My mother, Frances Hampton Stephenson, was born there and graduated from Galax High School there in 1951. A number of her elders were judges at the Convention, including her father, Virdie...