George Hurrell on Music – jazz, jazz, jazz!

Dad loved music, and used it generously to help set a mood and keep things jumping during his portrait sessions.  From his days at M.G.M with a Victrola, to his last days working with a CD player or “boom box”, Dad used music to fill the set with sound.  You would never know what kind of music would be playing but it was always lively.  Dad had many favorites, but when he was “on”, working at a mad pace, the music was inevitably jazz, jazz, and more jazz!

Dad would play music at home all the time too.  As a kid, I remember Hawaiian music, 50’s Gold records from stars like Doris Day, Tony Bennett, Sinatra, Nat King Cole, or Johnny Mathis would play daily from a big stack of LP’s on the stereo.  When the stack finished, Dad would just flip it over and we’d listen to the other side, over and over.  Occasionally the mood would strike, and Mom and Dad would break into impromptu dancing in the living room or out on the patio. A little Satchmo – Louis Armstrong, Al Hirt, or the older Big Bands all helped form the soundtrack to our growing up.  I still remember the lyrics to most of these tunes, just from listening to them almost every day.

George Hurrell and Clark Gable Circa 1931