Introduction, by C. Edward Wall
Supporting himself during the early years of his art education
and formative art career by playing jazz piano, music and musicians
have remained a vital part of Secunda's life. Over the years
Secunda has created many works of art on musical themes of all
genres, from his early watercolors of Sidney Bechet in the jazz
clubs on 52nd Street in New York, to lithographs and paintings of
Pablo Casals at the Prades Festival in France, and, later, major
works of Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins, and Steve Lacy. Secunda has
rarely parted with these works, viewing them collectively as his
"private album" of special friends, events, relationships, and
memories.
In 1990, when Lacy and his group toured the United States and
appeared at the Catalina Cafe in Los Angeles, Secunda took
numerous photographs of the group in action--in particular, of
saxist Steve Potts, a longtime member of the small Lacy
entourage. Later, Secunda montaged his photos, digitized them with
the help of computer expert Barbara Smith, then transferred the
imagery to a silk-screen, reworking by hand the final touches in
preparation for printing these intimate and personal homages to
alto-saxist Steve Potts and jazz. (As a side note related to
"continuity" in Secunda's work, recall the photo-collages that were
incorporated into Secunda's important "Watts" lithographs, which
were created at Gemini Ltd. with master printer Ken Tyler in
1965.)
In these prints, Kind of Blue and Body and Soul, Secunda
captures the visual equivalent and moods of extended chords,
rhythmic textures, and unexpected counterpoint reflecting the
probing depths of feeling that characterize both art and jazz. The
underlying sense of the blues that Secunda has rendered here using
the elements of repetition, continuity, minor key color harmonies,
dark dissonances, and chordlike modulations represent a complex and
memorable reminder of the commonality of all the arts.
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