Jean Bach (September 27, 1918 – May 27, 2013) was an American

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

radio producer A radio producer oversees the making of a radio show. The job title covers several different job descriptions: *Content producers or executive producers oversee and orchestrate a radio show or feature. The content producer might organize music cho ...

and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

aficionado. Bach directed the 1994 documentary, '' A Great Day in Harlem'', based on a 1958 photograph of the same name. Bach was born Jean Enzinger in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

on September 27, 1918, and raised in

Milwaukee Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

. She made frequent trips to Harlem and the

Apollo Theater The Apollo Theater (formerly the Hurtig & Seamon's New Theatre; also Apollo Theatre or 125th Street Apollo Theatre) is a multi-use Theater (structure), theater at 253 125th Street (Manhattan), West 125th Street in the Harlem neighborhood of U ...

as a student at

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States. The college be ...

. She became a fixture in New York's jazz scene for the rest of her life. The black-and-white photograph which formed the basis of ''A Great Day in Harlem'' is a portrait of fifty-seven prominent jazz musicians who were photographed in front of a

brownstone Brownstone is a brown Triassic–Jurassic sandstone that was historically a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States and Canada to refer to a townhouse clad in this or any other aesthetically similar material. Ty ...

at 17 East 126th Street in the

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...

neighborhood of upper

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

. Bach learned that jazz bassist Milt Hinton had a home movie from the day of the photo shoot in 1958. She acquired Hinton's home movie and used it for archival footage for her own film, '' A Great Day in Harlem'', an hour-long documentary released in 1994. Her film won the top award from the Chicago International Film Festival and earned an Academy Award for Documentary Feature nomination in 1995. Jean Bach died at her home in

on May 27, 2013, at the age of 94. Her husband, Bob Bach, a production coordinator on ''

What's My Line? ''What's My Line?'' is a Panel show, panel game show that originally ran in the United States, between 1950 and 1967, on CBS, originally in black and white and later in color, with subsequent American revivals. The game uses celebrity panelists ...

'', whom she married in 1948, died in 1985.

References

1918 births 2013 deaths American documentary filmmakers American jazz Vassar College alumni Mass media people from Manhattan Filmmakers from Milwaukee Jazz in New York City {{US-music-bio-stub