12: Chance Encounters (feat. John Rogers)
Photo of John Rogers courtesy of Rowan Renee.
Episode Music
Lambchop - So I Hear You’re Moving
Wally Pleasant - Sons of Bob Dylan
Low - Hey Chicago
Bill Frisell, Ron Carter, Paul Motian - On the Street Where You Live
Versus - Be-9
Episode 12: Chance Encounters feat. John Rogers
John Rogers, who first stepped into Lucy’s Record Shop when he was just 14-years-old, is an accomplished writer and photographer who uses his camera to document both the jazz scene and the streets of New York City. In this episode you’ll hear how growing up in Nashville - from seeing live music at Lucy’s and playing in his own bands to drinking coffee at Bongo Java and collecting records from The Great Escapeescapeonline.com - influenced his life and art. You’ll also hear about the numerous inexplicable and mysterious coincidences that manifest in his life and bring him closer to the people, scene, and city he loves and admires.
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John Rogers started traveling to New York City from his hometown of Nashville, Tenn., when he was 18 years old. The camera helped him consider the complexity of his personal devotion, as a fan, to the brightness and subtle glances that carry performances. He slept in cheap hotels or parks, heard a different show every night, and soaked up stories from musicians. Rogers moved to New York in 2003 knowing only a handful of players on New York’s avant-garde downtown scene, but eventually became close to figures like Yusef Lateef, Ornette Coleman, Paul Motian, Bill Frisell, Chris Potter and Fred Hersch. He established himself as a preeminent photographer and documentor of the city’s jazz ecosystem.
John has a way of catching his subjects mid-move, at the moment when energy is being activated. If a singer smiles, he gets them in the act of raising their eyebrows; when a drummer swipes for a tom drum, Rogers catches them gathering the conviction to render the blow.
Rogers now contributes regularly to NPR Music, ECM Records, DownBeat magazine, and Jazz Times. His work was featured in the 2014 Grammy Awards memorial section, Artforum, and John was the artist's photographer for Jason and Alicia Hall Moran’s BLEED installation at the 2012 Whitney Biennial. In 2013 John had his first solo gallery show at Union Arts in Washington DC, as well as having six images currently in the Village Vanguards permanent photography collection. In 2019-2020 John's work was exhibited in both the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and The Whitney Museum Of American Art in New York, as part of Jason Moran Staged. John's work was part of a large mural as well as featured in three large slideshows throughout the exhibit.
John recently released a book of his work, Old & New Dreams, with introduction by Dawoud Bey.