Home » Jazz Articles » In Pictures » Jazz Portraits Part 2

Jazz Portraits Part 2

By Keith Henry Brown
September 9, 2021
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Part 1 | Part 2

I got my start drawing superheroes, but music has always been my true inspiration. I've worked as a designer and illustrator for several advertising agencies and music labels & as an art director as well for high profile music-related projects, including creating posters for Jazz Appreciation Month, The Newport Jazz Festival, The Jacksonville Jazz Festival and creating jazz album covers for artists such as

Christian McBride

bass
b.1972

" data-original-title="" title="">Christian McBride,

Kevin Eubanks

guitar
b.1957

" data-original-title="" title="">Kevin Eubanks, and

Wynton Marsalis

trumpet
b.1961

" data-original-title="" title="">Wynton Marsalis. My first children's book, Birth of The Cool: How Miles Davis Found His Sound, was published by Page Street Books in 2019 and received a starred review from Kirkus. I was born and raised in Staten Island, father to two magnificent boys (whom I call affectionately my "two knuckleheads") and I still live and work in New York, surrounded by books, my jazz vinyl collection & my favorite Spider-Man, Batman and Black Panther action figures.

This second set of portraits represents illustrations going back as far as the '90s (the

Miles Davis

trumpet
1926 - 1991

" data-original-title="" title="">Miles Davis image) all the way up to last year (

Archie Shepp

saxophone, tenor
b.1937

" data-original-title="" title="">Archie Shepp,

Ahmad Jamal

piano
1930 - 2023

" data-original-title="" title="">Ahmad Jamal). I find painting, drawing and sketching these great musicians endlessly fascinating because of how the music of a particular artist hits me. So always in search of new ways to portray them—the spontaneity, the inventiveness. View Slideshow

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