Heritage Images content partner - National Jazz Archive

The National Jazz Archive holds the UK’s finest collection of written, printed and visual material on jazz, blues and related music, from the 1920s to the present day. Founded in 1988 by trumpeter Digby Fairweather, the Archive’s vision is to ensure that the rich tangible cultural heritage of jazz is safeguarded for future generations of enthusiasts, professionals and researchers.

In 2011 the Archive received a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to conserve and catalogue the collection. As a result many photographs, journals, documents and learning resources have been made available on the National Jazz Archive website.

Heritage Images will be representing some of these collections, including the Denis Williams photographic collection. Jazz photographer Denis Williams (1933 - 2009) was a press photographer and an enthusiastic freelance photographer of both jazz musicians and events. His photography represents a golden age of the popularity of jazz and his subjects included world famous artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, Dave Brubeck, Buddy Rich and many others.

Williams regularly attended and photographed Herts Jazz nights from 1978. He was a regular at the Bracknell Jazz Festival and London venues such as the Royal Festival Hall, the Barbican and Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club. He also worked for Crescendo Jazz magazine and Spotlite Records and others for whom he produced photographs for use on many album covers.