Uncle Lionel Batiste | Scott Chernis

George Duke at New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival May 2013

It seems like we are losing musicians every other week these days. Some are old and others just may have lived too hard, but each loss closes a chapter in the continuum of music. As a photographer I have photographed many musicians over the years and I have missed the opportunity to ever photograph many more. My heroes of this craft Jim Marshall, Michael P. Smith and Herman Leonard are all gone now but their images live on. It is these photographs that I study and try to learn from, but I know that I will never photograph the legends that have shaped the music I attempt to document every time I go out to a show with my camera. A few months ago I began to collect images of musicians that I have photographed who are no longer with us and I wanted to share this collection. George Duke passed away on Monday and I saw him for the first and last time this past May in New Orleans.

Al Grey at New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival 1999. He died the following year.

Alice Coltrane during her last concert Masonic Auditorium 11/4/06, she passed away in January 2007

Earl King’s funeral 5/1/03

I never photographed him alive but with Aaron Neville singing over his open casket I had to include his photo

BJ Pappa at the Gathering Cafe in North Beach around 1998

BJ was a local San Francisco legend and a good friend of mine.

Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown at Cafe Istanbul in New Orleans 1997

This is still one of my favorite photographs. I was young and inexperienced when I a shot this image but with the help of a full lighting set up from a video production I got my shot. I was able to give a print to Gatemouth a few years later when he came through San Francisco.