A Great Day in Dallas

In March 2012, a group of North Texas jazz artists gathered to recreate the famous photograph of 57 legendary jazz musicians “A Great Day in Harlem,” taken on August 12, 1958, by Art Kane. That photo, published in the January 1959 issue of Esquire magazine, included Count Basie, Coleman Hawkins, Gene Krupa, Thelonious Monk, Mary Lou Williams, and many more.

The idea to create a local version of the photo was seen as a way to promote D’JAM, or Dallas Jazz Appreciation Month. On March 31, 2012, Dallas photographer Jesse Hornbuckle photographed 49 local jazz artists coordinated by the Sammons Center Artistic Director, Arlington Jones, to create “Great Day in Dallas.”

Hornbuckle and Hope N. Jones used the image to design a poster to draw greater public attention to the extraordinary heritage and history of jazz and its importance as an American cultural heritage.

On September 30, 2017, Hornbuckle photographed the second “Great Day in Dallas” image in front of the Masonic Temple in downtown Dallas. More than 60 local jazz artists participated that day. That photograph was used to create another poster, designed by Stanley Vosburgh, in 2018.