Women in Jazz: Photographs by Lena Adasheva, Enid Farber, and Fran Kaufman

Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College

135 E. 22nd St., (646) 660-6652

Through Dec. 12

This year Baruch College’s Milt Hinton Jazz Perspectives concert series features women performers, and this exhibition of work by three women photographers is meant to complement it. Lena Adasheva won the Jazz Journalists Association Award for Best Photo in 2010; not bad for a 29-year-old just recently arrived from Nizhny Novgorod. Ms. Adasheva’s glorious picture “Carmen Lundy” (2010) shows how much she absorbed from her study of classic jazz photographers Herman Leonard and William Gottlieb. The singer is shot from below, her mouth opened wide, her eyes shut and her arms spread expressively; we can almost hear her. In Ms. Adasheva’s award-winning picture of trumpeter “Tom Harrell” (2009), he stands in the lower right corner of the frame before an immense stage curtain, holding his instruments and with his head bowed. Her portrait of pianist “McCoy Tyner” (2010) imbues the septuagenarian with deep soul.

Several of Enid Faber’s portraits were taken in profile: Betty Carter with her characteristic droll smile; Cassandra Wilson addressing her microphone with poise; and, in a sweet gesture, the young Esperanza Spalding clasping her hands together at her chest.

Fran Kaufman’s pictures focus on rehearsals and other casual moments. I liked especially “Anat Cohen and Howard Alden, Sound Check, Kaye Playhouse, NYC” (2010); they sit cross-legged on the floor, he playing his guitar, and she her clarinet with her cheeks blown out like Dizzy Gillespie’s.

By WILLIAM MEYERS

The article is available on The Wall Sreet Journal website for digital subscribers.