More info about Ron:

ronhudsonjazzphotography.com

Print Add Event

Ron Hudson, jazz photographer, author, graphic artist and bon vivant, died February 22, 2011 at his Seattle home after a long illness. He was 71.

Over four decades, Mr. Hudson photographed more than 900 jazz artists at concerts, nightclubs, and festivals from Monterey to Montreux.

"As Coltrane was to the tenor, Miles to the trumpet, Rich to the drums, Brubeck to the piano, Ella to the voice, Ron Hudson is to the camera," jazz artist/writer Michael Chatfield wrote in Carmel magazine.

Mr. Hudson's body of work charts America's history of jazz, captures rare moments on and off stage, and recalls golden days of great performances.

He used only high-speed, black-and-white film in available light to capture jazz musicians at peak performance "...with an eye so keen you can almost hear the music," author Rick Carroll wrote in "Right Down Front: Ron Hudson Jazz Images," a 144-page hardcover art book featuring Milt Jackson of The Modern Jazz Quartet on the cover.

The 2007 book grew out of a 30-year friendship between Carroll, an ex-San Francisco Chronicle writer, and Hudson, who met in Hawaii in the 1980s, missed "big city" jazz and brought artists to the Islands.

With Hollywood actor Warren Fabro, financier Tony Smart, and disc jockey Gary Johnson, Hudson and Carroll launched the first Honolulu Jazz Festival, featuring Dave Brubeck, Richie Cole, Herbie Hancock, Gabe Baltazar, and others in 1986.

"We did it to get closer to the music," Mr. Hudson once said.

Early Beginnings in Oakland and Monterey

Born in Oakland, California, Mr. Hudson began in the '70s photographing jazz legends like Ahmad Jamal, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, and Dizzy Gillespie.

Many of the artists he photographed became close personal friends. One of his last subjects was Esperanza Spalding, this year's Grammy Award-winning New Artist of the Year.

Mr. Hudson first attended the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1959, and started carrying a camera in 1973 when he won Press credentials as a freelance photographer. Until last year, he'd never missed a Monterey festival.

He used six cameras (all Nikon), wore out a dozen lenses, and burned up enough 35mm black-and-white film to wrap a ribbon around the Monterey Peninsula.

Many of his portraits are in private collections and on year-round exhibit at John Dimitriou's Jazz Alley in Seattle.

His work is featured in five other books, including "Monterey Jazz Festival, Forty Legendary Years" by Bill Minor; "The Art of Jazz," with a foreword by Clint Eastwood; "Take Five, The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond," by Doug Ramsey; "IZ: Voice of The People," by Rick Carroll, and "Surf Movie Tonight! Surf Movie Poster Art" by Matt Warshaw.

A former air brush artist, Mr. Hudson created vintage surf movie posters at his Honolulu Air Studio for Yuri Farrant's "Hot Lips and Inner Tubes," and other surf film classics.

Mr. Hudson is survived by his wife, Christine, daughters, Lynn Levinson (Randy) and Rhonda Key (Raymond), brother, Bailey Hudson (Sally), sisters, Teri Pintacura (Lori Sitzwold) and Jo Ann Teixeira, grandchildren, Jennifer, Joseph and Chloe, great grandchildren, Brennen, Grayson and Joey, a photogenic poodle, Ella Fitz, and many, many loving friends.

(Written by Rick Carroll)