biography
Bess Greenberg is a photographer, curator and the founding Director of 25CPW and Red Roots Gallery, two artist run galleries on New York City’s Central Park West.
As a Jack Kent Cooke Scholar, Greenberg completed a combined study in documentary and fine art photography at the International Center of Photography. While studying, she was selected as an intern photographer for The New York Times, before completing her MFA with ICP-Bard in May 2009. Six months later, she opened the doors at 25CPW.
Originally from Vestal, New York, Bess now spends her time in both upstate New York and New York City.
essays
Playing it Forward: The High Lonesome Sound Re-visited
In the 1950’s, New York City’s lower east side was a brewing pot of artists. These visionaries would help spawn a sense of spiritual revival not only for their contemporaries but also for generations to come. John Cohen was a young Yale art graduate living in the heart of this pulsating art scene. A devoted photographer and musician, he was renting an apartment on Third Avenue. He opened his camera to the constant stream of poets, painters, musicians and photographers around him; he captured and shared the images, and as he digested these experiences, his own inspiration grew. John was aligned with unearthing raw expression. As a founding member of the influential old-time band, The New Lost City Ramblers, John and his bandmates challenged commercial play by keeping true to the traditional regional style. Ignited with inspiration, John was driven to intimately experience the source of the music he played. In 1959 his passion for old-time music and devotion to unveil the authentic lured him to Eastern Kentucky. Economic depression and geographic isolation had preserved a distinct music culture. “There were a lot of people talking about what it was like down in Kentucky. I was tired of hearing about it; I wanted to experience it for myself,” recalled John. “I had been working on this film for Robert Frank about the Beat Generation (Pull My Daisy), and Life Magazine rented some of the photographs from me. They didn’t publish them, but they rented them, and with that money--because I wouldn’t have had any otherwise--I financed the trip to Kentucky.” John packed up his cameras and audio equipment and, with no car, hopped on a bus bound for Appalachia.On his search for old-time musicians, John meandered through the small towns of Eastern Kentucky. He bought an old car and rented a room in a boarding house; he spent his days recording, filming and photographing the culture around him. “In all, I made over 400 recordings when I was down there. My original intention was to learn about music surrounding the depression-- but, more specifically, I was looking for banjo players.” John continued, ”But once I met Roscoe, the focus changed. His music hit me very, very hard.”Born in 1912 and raised under Old Baptist traditions, Roscoe Holcomb was a manual laborer living at the end of a hollow in Daisy, Kentucky. In a decision that John refers to as a stroke of luck, John took a turn onto that dirt road one day and crossed over a small bridge. When he saw some kids on the side of the road, he asked them if they knew any musicians in the area. They pointed him in the direction of a house where he met Mary Jane Holcombe. She played him a few songs, when suddenly she stopped and said, ”Here comes Rossie!”, and Roscoe Holcombe walked in, sat down and played John a song on his banjo.The sound of Roscoe’s music, which John would one day coin, “The High Lonesome Sound”, moved John at his core. “When I heard him play, I was immediately affected. The emotional impact of being introduced to such a sound was tremendous. It made my hair stand on end.” He continued, “He didn’t have a regular beat to his music; he had a pulse, and that pulse of the banjo combined with this very slow moving song of the voice...when I first heard it, I didn’t know what I was hearing. It was like the chanting from an ancient church or something completely avant-garde.” John returned day after day to record the music that had affected him so much. All the while, he continued to film and photograph the daily life from which the music was born. “He represented all I was looking for in traditional music. Somebody who wasn’t commercial--someone who was down home and connected to old traditions.“ In John’s film, The High Lonesome Sound, released in 1963, he narrates: “Music is the celebration of the hard life here in Kentucky. The home music and the church singing are a way of holding on to the old dignity. Music is not an escape. It gives a way of making life possible to go on.”John was moved by the raw expression and profound spirit that the honest music revealed, and he used his personal work as a vessel to share it with others. “I was trying to show everyone else, what I felt was so moving. That’s all I was trying to do.”Over time, John’s published recordings, films and photographs helped Roscoe Holcomb become a prominent figure in American roots culture, touring with other musicians throughout the United States and Europe. In recent years, when Cohen recognized that contemporary musicians, both young and old, were still responding to Holcomb's music, he decided to edit old work and create a new film. Roscoe Holcomb From Daisy, Kentucky is an intimate experience of an authentic isolated voice. Cohen’s original audio recordings layered with astounding imagery provide a unique light on an authentic, personal philosophy; the film was featured at the Margaret Meade Festival and a winner at the 2010 Woodstock Film Festival.John’s music and art continue to spawn and inspire musicians and artists of today. At the age of 79, John continues to share both his visual and musical creations; a new book on Roscoe, published by Steidl, will be available later this year, and performing extensively with the youthful old-time string band The Dustbusters, John remains an active driving force behind the revival of old-time music. “I think people are looking for an aspect of American culture with which they can identify,” commented Craig Judelman, fiddle player for The Dustbusters. “And old time music offers them a chance to connect to a story of our country that is based in simple joy and in a life that is connected to the land-- not the story of domination and material excess that so much contemporary music offers us.” John Cohen is an artist that reminds us of the beauty in the simple and authentic. Judelman continued, “John is an endless source of musical creativity, sophisticated insight and classic humor, and his sense for the subtlety of music and life itself is apparent in everything he does.”For more information on John Cohen and his work, please visit www.johncohenworks.comAdditional information on The Dustbusters can be found at http://thedustbusters.blogspot.com/For information about this article, please contact Bess Greenberg at bess.greenberg_25cpw.org
