Have you ever listened to William James “Count” Basie play the piano?
He was many, many things. Basie changed the jazz landscape and shaped mid-20th century popular music, duly earning the title “King of Swing” because he made the world want to dance. His biggest strength may have been his ability to play the piano cleanly. Most critics applauded his ability to strike each piano key with precision — he never accidentally hit two keys together by mistake.
At some point I started to think about how Count Basie taught himself how to be that precise. Undoubtedly, he had some significant piano teachers who inspired him and guided his lessons. Some of them may have actually leaned over occasionally to move his hand while mentioning a few items that would expand his thinking too.
Count Basie Learning Academy
Whether we realize it or not we’re all members of the Count Basie Learning Academy. We all bounce around in the world with a certain understanding of things. Pick your subject — romance, history, finance, sports, travel, art, gardening. Any subject really. Our understanding of any subject generally uses the scientific method. We understand something, then new information arrives, and our understanding of that subject is altered into a new refined understanding of that subject.
Little by little Count Basie grew to understand the precise location of all the piano keys, and how to strike them whenever he wanted. Our absorption of new information clearly motivated Count Basie and it motivates us all to read books, view shows, attend concerts or lectures, watch movies, and travel to foreign countries.
Each person and each experience in our daily lives mimics those same moments where Count Basie’s piano teacher subtly moved his hands or his thinking to play the piano better. Call them friendly alignment adjustments. We think we know something, then we do something new, or we talk to someone new, and we discover a more pristine understanding.
The Fourth Time Has No Charm at All
Some of the people who guided us in our past towards better understandings are no longer here. It happened to me again recently when I learned that Claudia DiMartino had died from lung disease. This is maybe the fourth or fifth time I have lost someone important to me.
In my late 20s and throughout my 30s I was a public relations photographer. I photographed people at publicity events such as press conferences, contract signings, receptions, and executive board meetings. After moving to New York City from Los Angeles I had secured a photographer’s job at a commercial studio called Camera One by arriving one afternoon with a strong portfolio while a dozen other candidates waited outside in a hallway. It felt like trying to get a role in a Broadway Show. Lucky me! Camera One hired two fast-talking photographers that day, and I was one of them.
Occasionally, I would also accept some Associated Press assignments to generate some feature photographs to help fill content at newspapers throughout the country. With both jobs I was in the hero generating business. It was my job to photographically document the most heroic moments of any assignment on any given day.
My best friend and roommate from Arizona State University, Dan Hansen, had moved to New York City to be a photo editor for Associated Press. In time, I joined him to be his roommate again, and be a photog running all around the Big Apple, and it was in New York City that I met Claudia DiMartino. At the time, she was also a photo editor at Associated Press.
Move Closer, Step Back
Like Count Basie learning to pick the exact piano key at the just the right moment I was learning how to photograph people at those decisive moments to help them look their most heroic.
I called it popcorn photography. When someone makes popcorn, they turn up the heat. Nothing happens until everything happens. My job was to adjust people’s attitudes, positioning, and comfort levels while accessing their humor until their best moments arrived to take their pictures. Suddenly, I needed to capture their very best moments very quickly before we all overcooked the situation.
Each day the owner at Camera One or the editors at Associated Press including Claudia would provide feedback after each photo assignment:
“You could have moved closer in this photo.”
“Don’t be afraid to move closer.”
“Remember to step back once in a while to photograph the overall scene.”
Although, over the years, my job descriptions have changed from helping individuals look heroic to helping corporations look heroic, I have never forgotten those early instructions from Claudia and others to both move closer, and step back. The best art, movies, books, projects, architecture have the ability to move simultaneously in both directions. Move closer, step back — it takes extraordinary talents and insight to freely move both ways, and Claudia helped me learn some of those moments.
A Favorite Claudia Moment
Claudia helped Dan and me acclimate to life in New York City. She took us to learn her neighborhoods in Queens, and adventures out on Long Island. She pushed us to clarify our thoughts on how we were going to actually help solve the world’s problems. She wanted to fix things!
Each year there is a Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony at Rockefeller Center just above their ice-skating rink. At that time, Associated Press had offices in Rockefeller Center overlooking the skating rink and the Christmas Tree.
I was repeatedly invited to view the Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony from the AP office. That evening, I had a Camera One photo assignment which ran long so I was late to arrive to the tree lighting event. Like the beginning of those Cheers TV programs where people shouted out “Norm!”, I arrived with camera and camera bag dangling around my neck to hear “Ed!”
Someone said, and it could have been Claudia, “We didn’t want to start without you!”
Moments later, outside the big windows, cheers erupted as the lights on the tremendous Christmas Tree were turned on. We all kept viewing the lights on the Christmas tree, then turning back to make eye contact with each other before turning back again towards the festivities outside the window. It truly felt like a scene from a Hollywood movie!
Farewell Claudia DiMartino
It could be that we make our closest friends in our 20s and our 30s. The friends we made back then provided us the biggest course adjustments of our lives. We were invincible then. We were all flying with great speed, growing convictions, and closest to the Sun back in those days.
If we had thought about it back then, we could have given each other code names like they use in a Star Wars movie such as Red Leader Three, Red Leader Seven, or Red Leader One. If we had, we could now say, “Red Leader Six is gone. Claudia’s gone! She’s already on the golden stairway to heaven!”
Which brings me back again one last time to those photography days in New York City. At the time I would shadow seasoned photographers to study their approach to capture the best pictures. One afternoon while driving through the canyons of Manhattan this seasoned photographer pointed to the sky in between the skyscrapers and said, “Did you see that? The sky just opened up two stops!” This meant that adjustments would need to be taken for properly exposures photographs.
“Sure,” I responded but I wasn’t paying attention, and I wasn’t sure at all. However, when I think about it now, perhaps, that elusive stairway to heaven had just opened long enough for another good soul to leave New York!
https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/hicksville-ny/claudia-dimartino-11505728
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