Joey Harrison
Roscoe Mitchell
I'm gonna have to begin this story with bicycles in order to work my way to the origin of this photo.
On a warm day in 1972 a neighbor girl came to visit my sisters. She was riding a French 10-speed. I'd never seen one before. I picked it up. It was miraculously light. Half the weight of my Schwinn Varsity, easily. Wyn told me the bike was her father's and he could tell me more about it. Mr. Eck, who I visited soon after, introduced me to his neighbor, David Wessel, who, he said, was more of an expert on lightweight 10-speeds.
David had recently moved to East Lansing for a teaching post at Michigan State University, bringing with him from the West Coast a Louison Bobet 10-speed -- just like Mr. Eck's. David was happy to talk to me about bikes, but our conversation quickly turned to music after I entered his basement and caught a glimpse of the setup he had down there: a drum set, a giant litter of percussion instruments, a groaning shelf of jazz LPs, and a fascinating array of oddities.
I learned from David that he was sponsoring a visit to MSU by the Art Ensemble of Chicago (of which Roscoe was a founding member). The band came and did a concert, and shortly thereafter, Roscoe found a house in a rural community just north of East Lansing where he lived for several years. The rest of the band returned for a week-long clinic that autumn that I attended and photographed. Roscoe was interested in the camera I was using (my mother's Leica IIIf), and that provided an opportunity for conversation.
A couple of years later, Roscoe needed new passport photos and asked me if I would to come to his house and photograph him and his wife Marianne.
Roscoe Mitchell
I'm gonna have to begin this story with bicycles in order to work my way to the origin of this photo.
On a warm day in 1972 a neighbor girl came to visit my sisters. She was riding a French 10-speed. I'd never seen one before. I picked it up. It was miraculously light. Half the weight of my Schwinn Varsity, easily. Wyn told me the bike was her father's and he could tell me more about it. Mr. Eck, who I visited soon after, introduced me to his neighbor, David Wessel, who, he said, was more of an expert on lightweight 10-speeds.
David had recently moved to East Lansing for a teaching post at Michigan State University, bringing with him from the West Coast a Louison Bobet 10-speed -- just like Mr. Eck's. David was happy to talk to me about bikes, but our conversation quickly turned to music after I entered his basement and caught a glimpse of the setup he had down there: a drum set, a giant litter of percussion instruments, a groaning shelf of jazz LPs, and a fascinating array of oddities.
I learned from David that he was sponsoring a visit to MSU by the Art Ensemble of Chicago (of which Roscoe was a founding member). The band came and did a concert, and shortly thereafter, Roscoe found a house in a rural community just north of East Lansing where he lived for several years. The rest of the band returned for a week-long clinic that autumn that I attended and photographed. Roscoe was interested in the camera I was using (my mother's Leica IIIf), and that provided an opportunity for conversation.
A couple of years later, Roscoe needed new passport photos and asked me if I would to come to his house and photograph him and his wife Marianne.