Lost Jazz Funk Greats
Drawing from photos and turning the people into superheroes--I guess that's the name of my current art project (I'll come up with something better later). And here's attempt #2 in the series.
One of my last days as a senior, bumming around the library, avoiding studying or essay writing or whatever it is you're expected to do those last few moments of being a kid, I found a 1970's Menomonee Falls High School yearbook. Inside, I discovered a photo of what must've been a killer funk combo performing in the cafeteria.
Something about this hit my sentimentality button just right--seeing a long-lost band documented in this decades old artifact, playing in a space where, over the past three years, many of my own bands had played, photos of which were also captured for yearbooks--yearbooks that maybe some future-kid, decked out in his holo-vid sunglasses and space-age tie-dye t-shirt would find and likewise appreciate--I began to feel a sort of nostalgia for something that hadn't actually even ended yet.
So I took that old yearbook and photocopied the picture. I planned to do something with it one day (maybe a poster, maybe a sketch, maybe a screen print). So I shoved it in a book so it wouldn't be torn or folded. And I forgot about it.
Yesterday, while rummaging through my bookshelf, that photocopy slipped out from between the pages of the drawing book I had placed it in when I was 18 for safe keeping.
So here it is--15 years since I graduated and around 40 years since the photo was taken--my version of a band with a lot of brass (in more ways than one) depicted as members of the Justice League ('cause why not?).
(Left to Right) on brass -- Green Lantern John Stewart; Animal Man; Vibe; Black Lightning; Bronze Tiger; on guitar and vocals -- Steel
Kinda wishing I made a note of what the band was called or the name of the members or what year the photo was taken...
Hopefully there's more to come. I have an awful lot of Kodak photo folders in my basement just waiting for the superhero treatment!
