David Redfern – Remembered at Ronnie’s
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Family, friends, work associates, and fellow photographers all took turns on Ronnie Scott’s stage on Tuesday afternoon to tell us what many of us already knew.
That David Redfern was a giant among jazz and music photographers, an amiable companion and an all-round good egg; above all, a man ‘who played the Hasselblad’ rather wonderfully.
His son Simon spoke for the family, the multiplicity of projected images emphasising just how much family meant to David. His shots of jazz greats, supplemented by the many prints scattered around the club’s wall, showed off David’s supreme ability to capture ‘the moment’. Buddy Rich called David “the Cartier-Bresson of jazz”. Seems about right to me. A hard act to follow, for sure, but younger, newer photographers spoke eloquently of his generosity and support so his legacy seems to be in good hands. Or lenses.
Aside from the words, there was music too. Georgia Mancio (above) sang with feeling, pianist Dom Pitkin did his New Orleans thing and Ian Shaw gave us ‘Misty’, while Guy Barker MBE and tenor force Alex Garnett (pictured top) played us out with the kind of rousing jazz that David would have loved.
– Peter Vacher
– Photos by John Watson – www.jazzcamera.co.uk