Caught in the Carousel

Three Wishes: An Intimate Look At Jazz Greats

Pannonica de Koenigswarter
Abrams Image
Hardcover, 160 Pages

Three Wishes

Compiled and photographed by the late Pannonica de Koenigswarter, Three Wishes: An Intimate Look At Jazz Greats offers a far different look at legendary jazz musicians like Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus than any that has ever been recorded. The reason for this is simple: Nica, as she was known by all the jazz musicians she befriended, moved through the vibrant jazz scene of the fifties, sixties and seventies as its self-appointed patron, its secret benefactor, its greatest fan. Universally accepted by everyone from John Coltrane to Coleman Hawkins, the London-born Baroness was constantly on the scene, rolling up in her silver Bentley and making the rounds of clubs like the Five Spot, the Village Vanguard, Birdland and Small's. Like an untrained Florence Nightingale (she once sat up all night with an epileptic Coleman Hawkins and at the end of his life, a drug weary Charlie Parker died in her home), or a more political Brian Epstein (she joined the musicians union, got bookings for some of the artists and fought tirelessly for their rights), or a seemingly platonic Pamela DeBarres (she established The Cathouse, a New Jersey home that became a crash pad and a refuge for musicians as well as hundreds of rescued felines), Nica had the means, the energy and the desire to tend to both the music she loved and its practitioners she so admired.

Although she died in 1988 having never written her memoirs—what stories she could have told!—Nica left behind something that is perhaps much, much better. Trusted by the players, she had permanent backstage access and took the opportunity to snap hundreds of candid Polaroid photographs. And, on whim that she followed for some time, she took to asking the musicians to name their three wishes and the combination of these two elements is deeply compelling. The wishes themselves vary from the monetary (Kenny Dorham: "Money"), to the superficial (Ron Carter wishes for a "groovy apartment"), to the spiritual (Walter Davis Jr. wishes for "Knowledge and wisom...and complete identification—as a Yogi would mean"). The wishes are poignant (Al Dreares: "...I wish my son grows up to be a fine young man..."), psychologically honest (Art Farmer foregoes all three in favor of, "There is only one; to like myself") and hilarious (Jimmy Wilkins: "I wish my first wife would hurry up and give me a fucking divorce!"). Although the question seems simple enough, one never gets tired of reading about the wishes of these legendary players, and because enough time has passed to know the outcome of most of them, it's hard to resist matching them up with history.

As for the pictures, they are, in a word, breathtaking: Sonny Rollins kicking back; Marian McPartland elegant at the piano; Art Blakey thoughtful at the typewriter; Jon Hendricks asleep in a chair; Miles Davis blasting away at the Cathouse—it's a wonderful gallery to gaze at.

So maybe Nica never wrote her memoirs—but this book looks like how they might have sounded on paper. Here are the musicians Nica admired so much caught in candids that form a stirring three decade yearbook.

—Alex Green