Jam Session c. 1935 - 1943

Alex Monastersky made this drawing, Jam Session, with graphite on paper. Monastersky’s musicians look as if they’ve materialized out of the smoky atmosphere, their forms emerging from the half-light of a club scene. Look at the gentle hatching which models their faces. I wonder if he felt like one of the band when he drew them? Maybe he was responding to jazz in the same way I respond to paint. The musicians here seem to float in and out of focus, as if the paper itself is vibrating. Music scores are scattered across the floor, echoing the improvisational freedom of a jam session. In his looser marks we get a sense of Monastersky’s own feeling for improvisation and a conversation between the musicians and the artist. The composition invites us to see, think, and experience the rhythm and flow of the music through the materiality of the drawing. Isn’t it great when artists find each other across media and time, inspiring everyone’s creativity?