My late father Mel Levine (z”l) left behind a small collection of jazz-related photos, which he shot in the clubs of Boston in the 1950s. I shared some of his prints earlier, including some lovely photos of Billie Holiday from her last Boston performance in April, 1959.
Pa also left behind some black and white negatives, that I finally got around to scanning at the Memory Lab at the Martin Luther King, Jr Library in Washington, DC. That collection included shots from three performances: Billie Holiday in October 1955, Anita O’Day in September 1957, and Sam Margolis in July 1957 (unfortunately I have no information on the vocalist, who Pa referred to only as “canary”). Enjoy these highlights from Mel’s collection. They’re available in a Flickr album under a generous Creative Commons license.
Oren Levine, jazz pianist and songwriter 