Photograph of Charlie Parker with Dean Benedetti and Max Roach: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A black and white photograph of Charlie Parker with Dean Benedetti and Max Roach. Charlie Parker is in the middle, wearing a striped suit with patterned tie and Max Roach is on the right in a dark colored suit. Dean Benedetti is on the left, wearing a light colored suit jacket, swirled pattern tie, and dark colored pants. Parker has both arms around the other men, who each have one arm around Parker. Parker is gazing ahead with lips in a closed smile. Roach is looking towards Parker and holding a cigarette in his proper left hand. Benedetti is turned slightly towards Parker, head tilted down and eyes closed. On the back, handwritten in pencil in the top left corner is “A07387/9.”

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: ca. 1945
• Photograph by: Unidentified
• Subject of: Charlie Parker, American, 1920 - 1955
• Subject of: Max Roach, American, 1924 - 2007
• Subject of: Dean Benedetti, 1922 - 1957
• Type: gelatin silver prints
• Medium: silver and photographic gelatin on photographic paper
• Dimensions: H x W: 10 1/16 × 8 1/8 in. (25.6 × 20.6 cm)
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Instrumentalists (Musicians)
• Topic: Jazz (Music)
• Topic: Photography
• Topic: Singers (Musicians)
• Object number: 2014.3.6
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Paxton and Rachel Baker
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: Unknown - Restrictions Possible Rights assessment and proper usage is the responsibility of the user.