As the premier chronicler of West Coast jazz, photographer William Claxton took his subjects out of the shadows and into the light.
Instead of posing musicians such as Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins in dark, seedy-looking clubs, wreathed in cigarette smoke, he photographed them on golden beaches, riding on carousels, strolling in the Mojave Desert, emerging from the ocean cradling a trumpet.
Mr. Claxton, who worked in a style he called “jazz for the eyes," died Oct. 11 in Los Angeles of complications from congestive heart failure. He was 80.
One of his most famous images, taken in 1955, shows a shirtless Chet Baker, the trumpeter, pianist and singer, relaxing in the sunlight of Redondo Beach, Calif., with his wife, Helima, leaning against his knee.
Mr. Claxton, who loved the beach, met Baker in 1951, just as the young musician's career was rising. In a 1999 interview with The Washington Post, he recalled riding in the front seat of Baker's Cadillac as the two traveled from gig to gig along the California coast.
Instead of posing musicians such as Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins in dark, seedy-looking clubs, wreathed in cigarette smoke, he photographed them on golden beaches, riding on carousels, strolling in the Mojave Desert, emerging from the ocean cradling a trumpet.
Mr. Claxton, who worked in a style he called “jazz for the eyes," died Oct. 11 in Los Angeles of complications from congestive heart failure. He was 80.
One of his most famous images, taken in 1955, shows a shirtless Chet Baker, the trumpeter, pianist and singer, relaxing in the sunlight of Redondo Beach, Calif., with his wife, Helima, leaning against his knee.
Mr. Claxton, who loved the beach, met Baker in 1951, just as the young musician's career was rising. In a 1999 interview with The Washington Post, he recalled riding in the front seat of Baker's Cadillac as the two traveled from gig to gig along the California coast.
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