CLAXTON, William and Berendt.

Jazzlife [Jazz Life].

Offenburg: Burda Druck und Verlag , 1961.

$2,450.00

Out of Stock Item Number: RRB-2306

Custom Clamshell Box

Hand made by the Harcourt Bindery. ~90 days

+$450

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First Edition of William Claxton's Jazzlife; Inscribed by Him

First edition of Claxton’s seminal photobook on jazz. Quarto, original black cloth, pictorial front endpapers. Profusely illustrated in color and black and white. Presentation copy, inscribed by the photographer on the half-title page, "For John William Claxton." Near fine in a near fine dust jacket with a small chip to the front panel. A very sharp example.

Newsweek has called Jazzlife "... surely the most thorough and imaginative visual record of American jazz at mid-century that we'll ever see." Claxton's work is a photographic depiction of jazz artists in the 1960's, most noted for its images of Chet Baker. He has photographed for Steve McQueen and other celebrities and models, and in 1967, he created the film Basic Black. It is credited as the first "fashion video" and is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.