Right Down Front

Sooner or later, everyone comes to Hawaii. Paris Hilton, George W. Bush. Even my first ex-mother-inlaw from Sacramento, who never went anywhere.  I have been to parties in the Islands with Kareem Abdul Jabar, Margaret Thatcher,  John McPhee, Vanna White, Princess Diana and

Gabe Baltazar, Gabe’s in Waikiki, 1981

Gabor Szabo, Waikiki Shell, 1974

Sooner or later, everyone comes to Hawaii. Paris Hilton, George W. Bush. Even my first ex-mother-inlaw from Sacramento, who never went anywhere.

I have been to parties in the Islands with Kareem Abdul Jabar, Margaret Thatcher, John McPhee, Vanna White, Princess Diana and O.J. Simpson (although not together). Elton John and Diana Krall once played Honolulu on the same night in adjoining concert halls. (She went to see him.) What do Vladimir Ashkenazy and Kwame Ture have in common? Honolulu.

Never in my life did I expect to meet Dizzy or Miles in the ukulele capitol of the world. But they dropped by just like everyone else, blinking in the bright tropic sun, looking like they got off at the wrong stop. On those trans-Pac layovers Honolulu swung.

One incredible year I interviewed Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Stan Getz, Dave Brubeck, Herbie Hancock, Les McCann, Herbie Mann, Richie Cole, Freddie Hubbard, Ray Charles, Joe Sample, Wynton Marsalis, Joe Henderson, McCoy Tyner, John Handy, George Benson, David Sanborn and David Frishberg.

Stan Kenton, Hilton Hawaiian Village,1975

Anita O’Day, Gabe’s in Waikiki, 1980

Only Whitney Balliett of The New Yorker profiled more jazz artists in a single year. Soon I became pals with musicians - lunch with Brubeck, dinner with Dizzy, mai tais with Herbie Mann. I shot hoops with Wynton, watched girls go by with Les McCann. Richie Cole came over for a swim and stayed to play his alto sax after dinner at my house. I even carried Dizzy’s trumpet, although not in the musical sense. Oh, those were the days, my friend ...

Milt Jackson, Monterey Jazz Festival, 1985. This is Right Down Front’s cover shot, and inspiration for producing the book. Writes Hudson: ‘The crowd was starting to cheer ... it was as if he was saying, it’s OK, I do this all the time’

Miles Davis, Waikiki Shell, 1981. He was upset at this moment, Hudson writes, because ‘somebody hit a sour note or wasn’t on the same page’

And there to shoot them was Ron Hudson. About a dozen of the jazz legends he shot in Honolulu - as well as several Mainland sites - are part of a new, highly acclaimed book, Right Down Front: Ron Hudson Jazz Images, (JazzPress, Seattle). Of Gabe Baltazar, he writes: “One of the world’s great, great alto sax players.”

The 144-page hardcover book of black and white portraits of jazz legends debuted nationally at the 50th annual Monterey Jazz Festival.

The $45 book, now in national release, features more than 100 performance portraits of jazz musicians photographed from

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