Ave Pildas Photography

I spent most of 1974 photographing on Hollywood Boulevard. The most interesting area was the legendary Hollywood Walk of Fame...Read more:

I have been nominated by Ken Carbone to show one image of my art, my life, my studio, or exhibition for 10 consecutive days. No explanation needed just a collection of urban vegetation photographs. I'll also nominate another artist every day to do the same. 10 days, 10 images, 10 nominations. The purpose is to promote positivity, passion, and attention to art. Today I nominate Susan Mathison Today is day 5 the image caption is menage et trois

Eddie ‘Lockjaw’ Davis 1964 Ave Pildas, Pittsburgh, PA Eddie ‘Lockjaw’ Davis had a 40+ year career playing the tenor saxophone. His style was rooted in Swing and blues but he also played bop, hard bop, soul, and Latin jazz.... Davis stared and recorded with Count Basie from 1952 until 1983 on over 25 albums and worked as a sideman on another 20 with greats such as Benny Carter, Dizzy Gillespie, Al Grey, and many more. As a leader, Eddie recorded 60 albums between 1954 and 1984. In the 50s Davis enjoyed success with the ensemble featuring organist Shirley Scott, bassist George Duvivier, drummer Arthur Edgehill, and flutist/saxophonist Jerome Richardson. The 60s brought praise for his Collaboration with Johnny Griffin and the 70s Davis toured with Harry ‘Sweets’ Edison. Some say ‘Lockjaw’ got his nickname from a composition of the same name while others attribute it to his habit of biting down hard on his mouthpiece. My photo was taken in 1964 while Davis was playing with Count Basie at the Pittsburgh Jazz Festival. https://www.rpmarchives.com/product-category/ave-pildas/

I have traveled extensively since I was a teenager. Visiting an unfamiliar place always serves as a creative shot in the arm. The Covid 19 pandemic curtailed travel for me in 2020, and my most recent shot was a Moderna vaccination. I look forward to hitting the road again later this year. In the last ten years, I have made three trips to India. Along with the poverty and social distress, India remains a spiritual, culinary, and visual feast. I have traversed the country by train, plane, car, and boat. I retain thousands of photographs of the people and places I encountered in Mumbai, Delhi, Agra, Chennai, Calcutta, Pondicherry, Kerala, and destinations in between. This week I present a few of my many favorites.

For more photographs of this series, visit my Instagram @AvePildas

Astrud Gilberto Ave Pildas Pittsburgh, PA, 1964 Last year at this time I was in Salvador, Brazil, the hometown of Astrud Gilberto. Before she recorded The Girl from Ipanema in 1963, she had never sung professionally. That song sold more than one million copies and established her as the Bossa Nova singer worldwide. Gilberto emigrated to the United States in 1963. I took this photograph in Pittsburgh in 1964. Gilberto recorded her first solo album in 1965, and went on tour with saxophonist Stan Getz. In the 70’s she recorded her own compositions in Portuguese, English, Spanish, Italian, French, German, and Japanese. Her father was a language professor so she was fluent in many languages. She continued recording and performing with her two sons Marcelo and Gregory throughout the 80’s and 90’s. Gilberto retired from performing in 2002.

Animal Antics documents my observations of humans with animals. These observations have occurred worldwide. My subjects include not only living specimens, but also our representations of animals and monuments to them. We love animals as pets, revere them as creatures of nature, gawk at them in zoos, consume them as food, hunt them for sport, display them as trophies and adorn ourselves with their skins and fur. They serve us in many ways.... Pictured here are an enormous range of complex relationships between our species and all the others proprietary, devotional, exploitative or often a comic mash up of all of the above, as when a cow walks into a leather goods store, or a museum goer makes eye contact with the glassy counterfeits of a stuffed lioness. The selection is from a collection that dates back to the 1970s, in black and white as well as color. See more

Cedar Walton, Ave Pildas Pittsburgh, PA. 1964 Cedar Walton was a hard bop pianist, he was a member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers from 1960-1964. During that... time Jazz Messengers were comprised of Blakey, Hubbard, shorter, Fuller, Workman, Morgan and Walton with other members moving in and out of the group over a thirty five year period. Earlier in Walton’s career he had learned to play and arrange for a number of instruments and he used this talent with the Messengers. Cedar left the Messengers in 1964 and went on to lead his own groups, work as an accompanist, record arrange and write. Many of his original compositions became jazz standards including; Firm Roots, Mode For Joe, Cedar’s Blues and Boliva his most well known composition. Walton was a giant he worked and recorded with artists too numerous to mention here. See more

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In June 2019, I flew to Kansas City, rented a car and drove to St. Louis. My intention was to follow the Mississippi River down to New Orleans. Unfortunately, the river soon breached its banks, and it was not possible to get close. I switched to Plan B: seeing the sights. In Kansas City, I visited the American Jazz Museum and learned that the region featured many other exotic tourist temptations. I visited the Arch in St. Louis, and later Leila’s Hair Museum, the Museum of... Small Appliances, The Purse Museum, The Coke Museum, The Daisy Air Rifle Museum, and of course Crystal Bridges. I stopped by a number of historical sites related to the Civil War, and many devoted to the civil rights movement of the 50’s and 60’s. In Memphis I saw the site of the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968 next to The National Civil Rights Museum that opened in 1991. I visited Little Rock High School, the site of forced desegregation in 1957. In locations in the Mississippi Delta, I observed signs or racial discrimination like confederate flags and run-down ghettos. I was reminded of road trips in the 1950’s when I travelled with my family from our home in Cincinnati, Ohio to Virginia to visit relatives. Much has changed, but sadly much remains the same. The pictures that I feature this week address issues of civil rights. See more