Lost & Found #38: Sonny Rollins at the Wellington Jazz Festival, 2011
This week's Lost & Found post is from my last Wellington Jazz Festival - who are kicking off again today, over in New Zealand!
Our major draw card in 2011 was a one-off concert with Sonny Rollins and his band at the Michael Fowler Centre. He may have been 81 (REALLY!?) at the time, but he put on a heck of a show - and as you'd expect from someone of his calibre, the band were top notch as well.
This was one of those situations where my Jacobsen Sound Blimp came in handy once again, because there wasn't really a chance to photograph him during the sound check, so my only option was to be out in the audience during the show.
It's quite obvious when you open a door to get to another part of the MFC, so I spent most of the show on one side of the stage, which was fine as it gave me the option to photograph the crowd, as well as the performers.
I do remember early in my photographic career a wise photographer saying to me, 'there are always two stories at every event - what's happening, and what the reaction is to what's happening'. (Wish I could remember who said it - but perhaps I read it online, it's hard to be sure!)
It's not all that often that I get to cover both sides of a show in that way (as being able to see the audience's reaction usually means they can see me, too!) - so it was good to get a chance to see their enjoyment of Rollins' storming set that night.
So all the best to this year's festival - hope it goes well for you, Wellington!