The great improvisational American jazz musicians of the mid-20th century inspired a generation of photographers to develop a looser, moodier style of visual expression. That evocative approach is on striking display in The Jazz Image. Covering six decades of performers —from Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington to John Coltrane and Miles Davis—this unique collection is as much a comprehensive catalogue of jazz greats as it is a salute to the photographers who captured them.

Lee Tanner, a leading authority on jazz photography, has selected works—by such noted jazz photographers as Herman Leonard, Bob Willoughby, Milt Hinton, and Bill Claxton—that are iconic, candid, explosive, and intimate. They provide a simultaneous look at jazz, photography, and America from 1935 into the 1990s.