Jazz...the divine delicacy and complexity of it...

"A FOGGY DAY IN LONDON TOWN"

The concept of music in general and Jazz in particular and its relation to visual art has been explored by many, but Jazz has come to play a vital role in my work and that's why the featured painting this week is so titled after the famous Gershwin song performed by Fred Astaire, Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald did the most amazing rendition of it during her birthday concert in Rome in 1958, Charlie Mingus, Wynton Marsalis, Sarah Vaughan... the list goes on and on.

Many of you have heard me explain this before but for those of you unfamiliar with the process I must confess that much of what you see on this site is a direct interpretation and reflection of Jazz.

There are three key influences in my work - music, literature and philosophy. They are the principal driving forces behind my work. Each is uniquely manifested through its own palette. Jazz is most complex and emotional of the three. In “A Foggy Day in London Town ” each note, each movement is seen and then communicated through color. Its hue, intensity and saturation along with the space and position it occupies within the boundaries of the canvas are a direct reflections of my perception of the song. My mind has a tremendous advantage of “seeing” music in color. From textured and glowing pale yellows of Vermeer and Rembrandt to the most complex green, black and violet of Schiele, each note carried and delivered by Sonny Rollins or Art Blakey is interpreted with its own unique hue and energy.

Usually, once the painting is complete we go through a period of “getting acquainted”, as Pollock used to call it. I would spend days just looking at the finished work, reading it, waiting for it to tell me its story. Sometimes it would be just a couple of days, but sometimes weeks would pass before everything falls into place. And just imagine how frustrating that wait can be. It's as if you're looking at a puzzle, trying to find a key to solving it. I remember working on what would become "A Foggy Day..." on my easel for weeks. WBGO (one of the few remaining classic Jazz radio stations in the US) filling the room, as is often the case, providing the fertile ground for my work and subtly (or not) hinting at the next color to be picked. I knew the canvas was almost finished and I had a feeling that this time I'd have the title almost immediately… Would you believe it, that song came on the air almost 6 times that day? I think by the 5 th play I was laughing and saying: “ok, ok, I got it!”

"A Foggy Day in London Town" was the featured painting in my solo show in Vienna in 2006 and now lives happily in... London. It was the inspiration for the rest of the collection now called RAIN.

Mixed meda on canvas 48" x 51"