Description

Born Duquesne, PennsylvaniaAl Hirschfeld’s drawing of Earl “Fatha” Hines is a variant of the one published on the cover of Stereo Review in February 1980, when the jazz pianist was awarded the magazine’s annual Certificate of Merit for outstanding contributions to the quality of American musical life. Stanley Dance, credited with reviving Hines’s career in 1964, noted in his accompanying article that “for more than fifty years Hines has been famous for the independence of his two hands.” Jazz commentators marveled at Hines’s ability to establish a separate rhythm and melody with his left hand rather than just keeping the beat. On one occasion, while listening to a playback, Hines himself commented that “the left hand got away from the right.” Through the double-imaging of the hands and the long flexible fingers, Hirschfeld, a jazz aficionado himself, conveys independence, movement, and speed.

Record Contributed By

National Portrait Gallery

Record Harvested From

Smithsonian Institution