New Book: Dans l’oeil de Nica (Through Nica’s Eye) about Thelonious Monk, Nina Simone: Videos, Photos

If you happen to be in Paris this week, you might wander along to the little bookshop and gallery of Robert Delpire, tucked away on a street beside the church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, to see a small show of photographs taken by the Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswater.

Nica, as she was known, took snapshots of many great jazz musicians during her encounters with them in the 1950s and ’60s. To them — the pianists Thelonious Monk and Barry Harris in particular, but many others, too — she was a friend, patron and benefactor, which means that her photographs, taken in dressing rooms and hotel rooms and kitchens, have a rare intimacy and candour.

The photo above, of Thelonious Monk and Nina Simone, is one of about a dozen of the original Polaroids framed and mounted on the walls of the gallery. Many more — of Hank Mobley, Sonny Clark, Coleman Hawkins, Oscar Pettiford, Billy Higgins, Paul Chambers and others — are included in a new book called Dans l’oeil de Nica (Through Nica’s Eye).

Her photos have the tonal richness and warmth characteristic of Polaroids. They were also badly stored for decades and are presented as found, many of them in a semi-distressed condition that inevitably enhances their romantic allure.

The new book is a follow-up to Three Wishes, published in English by Abrams Image in 2006, in which Nica’s photos were accompanied by the answers given to her by dozens of musicians when she asked them the question implied in the title. Many of them are very personal, others poignant, viz. Eric Dolphy: “1: To continue playing music all my life. 2: A home and a car in New York. That’s all!”

In 1963, pianist Thelonius Monk released an album of live music called “Live at the Village Gate.” A year earlier, Nina Simone released a similarly titled album.

The pianists who play it are thrilled about the history of it,” said Greg Wall. “I feel a mystical sense. I definitely feel that.”

It’s not surprising that Wall feels a spiritual connection to the instrument. He is, after all, a musician and the rabbi at Westport’s Beit Chaverim Synagogue, which he said may be “the only modern orthodox synagongue in the world where the rabbi is a professional jazz musician.”

He’s also the president and artistic director of the Jazz Society of Fairfield County, known as JazzFC, an organization that owes its existence to the iconic piano that now rests, waiting for the pandemic to end, at the Pearl restaurant in Westport.

He has played at some of the best-known jazz clubs in New York, including the Blue Note, the Village Vanguard and Lincoln Center.

He was touring extensively in Europe when he started getting interested in religion.

“The rabbi thing didn’t happen until, I wouldn’t call it a midlife crisis,” he said. “I was doing a lot of touring in the ’90s and the 2000s. I spent a lot of time on trains. A lot of these musicians get high on the train. I decided I’d study medival Jewish texts.”

He ended up rabbi at the 6th Street Community Synagogue in New York City’s East Village, but he didn’t let go of the music.

“I turned the synagogue into the Center for Jewish Arts and Literacy,” he said, and was performing regularly.

But the suburbs beckoned (“My family hated the East Village,” he said) and Wall took up the post as rabbi at Beit Chaverim in Westport.

Soon after arriving in Connecticut, Wall began playing regular jazz shows at the now-closed 323 restaurant on Westport’s Main Street.

“It basically came out of my frustration at being distant from Manhattan,” he said. “I wanted to have something in Westport.”

At some point, another local synagogue, Temple Israel, was replacing its piano and offered the older instrument to Beit Chaverim. Wall said the synagogue didn’t have the space at the time, but asked if he could use it at 323.

It wasn’t up to the task. It was a fine piano for beginners, but those 323 jazz shows were drawing Grammy-winning musicians, Wall said, and the instrument couldn’t handle it.

“This piano could not stand up for professional use,” he said. “It was always going out of tune.”

Wall’s piano tuner told him that a client in New Canaan had a piano for sale. It was, he learned, the piano used at the Village Gate, a club in New York’s Greenwich Village that has now taken mythical qualities.

The piano had been played by, among many others, Monk and Simone, as well as Mose Allison, Count Basie, Bill Evans, Erroll Garner, Ahmad Jamal, Earl Hines, Milt Jackson, McCoy Tyner and many, many others.

When the Village Gate closed in 1988, the piano was bought by avant garde pianist Misha Mengelberg. It was sold, and sold again, and was up for sale in 2016 when Wall was looking for an instrument that could take the beating his pianists would give it. Wall called it “a very famous piano, a gorgeous heirloom instrument.”

The problem became, who would buy it? The restaurant at which the concerts were held was not the appropriate option, nor was the congregation Wall leads.

“JazzFC started in 2016 because the fans of 323 pitched in to buy a piano,” he said. “We needed to know who was going to own the piano, so we started a nonprofit. In a couple weeks we raised the money to buy the piano.”

The piano itself, a 1937 Steinway model M, was not in great condition when it was bought.

“They do have a lifespan and that one had met or exceeded its recommended lifespan,” said Stamford’s Paul Haller, who restored the piano. Though he said the instrument needed a lot of work, it is now as good as it was when Monk played it. “When you start with good bones you can get it back to good bones.”

When asked how he felt working on such an esteemed instrument, Haller said “It’s a little scary. Not scary, but you better know what you’re doing.”

Though Wall’s organization began with the piano, it didn’t end there. JazzFC is now focused on advocacy and education.

“Now it’s a very small part of what we do,” Wall said of the regular performances, which had continued at the Pearl (the piano’s current home) after 323 closed down.

In fact, the organization had planned to give out its first-ever scholarship this year. But then the pandemic hit.

“I’m heartbroken about this,” Wall said. “We wanted to give our first scholarship this spring and all the schools were closed.”

And that, perhaps, has been the toughest blow to bear, for Wall. Not only has the scholarship been put on hold, but so has the regular concerts. The piano sits quiet. There is an extended rest in the music while Wall and his fellow musicians wait for the pandemic to end.

“I have not played in front of an audience since March 12,” he said.