Jazz at STAX!

When Billie Holiday entered the recording studio in New York City in the spring of 1959, the glass of vodka she sipped didn't help her voice the way she thought it would. The session didn't go well. In fact, it would be the last recording session of her acclaimed life, which ended tragically later that year on July 17^th. What was also recorded that day was her session on film in the camera of one of the greatest jazz bass players in the world, Milt Hinton, who played bass on the session. Hinton was also an avid photographer. He almost always carried a camera with him, documenting over a period of decades the performances, sessions, camaraderie, travel, and between-gigs lives of the people he loved and respected so much--his fellow performers in the world of jazz.

The Stax Museum of American Soul Music will host a very special photography exhibit from November 12, 2006 - January 29, 2007: Milt Hinton: All That Jazz Behind the Scenes Photographs of 20^th Century Jazz. The exhibit, on loan from the New York City-based Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection, will include 50 Hinton photographs of the most important jazz figures in history, including Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Pearl Bailey, Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Sarah Vaughan, Thelonious Monk, Memphis' own Mulgrew Miller and Aretha Franklin, the aforementioned Billie Holiday, and dozens of other legendary performers who helped shape the American art form.

The Stax Museum will host an opening reception for the exhibit on Sunday, November 12, 2006 from 2-5 p.m. with complimentary hors d'oeuvres and soft drinks, a cash bar with Mimosas and Bloody Marys, special guests, and live jazz. Admission is $9 to the general public and free to Stax Museum members.