Jazz + Photography (Part 3)

A Spontaneous Collaboration

Strange bedfellows, you might say?  In 1963 Lu Watters, Bob Mielke and Barbara Dane were each into separate scenes in the San Francisco trad jazz world.  As was I: playing occasional gigs, while becoming professionally committed as a photographer and writer. You can read more on this here.

What brought us together in one of those spontaneously rich, fleeting jazz moments was the decision by Watters (then retired) and Dane (who had been running her own San Francisco blues club called Sugar Hill) to make an album together as part of a protest movement aimed at stopping the California utilities agency from building a nuclear power plant at pristine Bodega Bay, north of San Francisco.  For many reasons, the plant was never built.  The recording session happened on December 1, 1963.  My equipment was not yet the best, but the negatives have been in my files ever since (48 years and counting).  We herewith present a few of those images.

The Lu Watters Band recording “Blues Over Bodega” in 1963. Personnel: Back row Bob Mielke, trombone, Lu Watters, trumpet, Bob Helm, clarinet, Barbara Dane, vocals. Front row: Thad Vandan, drums, Bob Short, tuba, Monty Ballou, banjo, Wally Rose, piano

Bob Mielke, Lu Watters, and Bob Helm at the 1963 recording session. Photo By William Carter

Lu Watters, Bob Helm, and Barbara Dane at the 1963 recording session. Photo By William Carter

Barbara Dane at the 1963 recording session. Photo By William Carter

Lu Watters on trumpet at the 1963 recording session. Photo By William Carter

Wally Rose at the piano during the 1963 recording session. Photo By William Carter

Bob Helm on clarinet at the 1963 recording session. Photo By William Carter

Added Extras

Here are a couple of photos from my files that complement earlier blogs.

HOW THE WEST WAS WON place, date and photographer unknown, probably southern Arizona, early twentieth century

JAZZ/BLUES GREATS Bassist Wellman Braud; pianist/trumpeter/vocalist Kenny Whitson at Sugar Hill, San Francisco, 1961, photograph © William Carter