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Etta James
Here is Etta James, the wonderful blues singer. I had taken her picture a few times for Private Music, her record company. This particular time a movie producer friend of mine was doing a film with Gregory Hines called Tap. It was one of the few movies I ever shot on. The first day was a scene in a restaurant and here was the great Gregory Hines, who walked right over to me and said "Hey Henry, I love your Crosby, Stills, & Nash pictures" and stuff. Apparently I'd met him once before; I didn't even remember. I thought "Oh, my God, he knows who I am!" That was quite amazing, so we were good friends for that whole shoot. Sammy Davis Jr. was also in the film (the last that he ever did). Etta James came for a couple days to do a scene in a club where she sings with all these tap dancers. Every famous tap dancer alive at that moment was there, including Savion Glover, who's really well known now and who was then a very young kid, like 11 or 12 or something. This photo was outside the club on a break. Etta James was sitting there, we were all just talking, and I took a few shots of her. Otherwise you really only see her either in a recording studio or in a club. But here we were just sitting outside in the late afternoon chatting, so it was a good time to take candid pictures. Lovely lady, great singer. And a good friend of Dr, John's; several times I've taken pictures of her and Dr. John at recording sessions.
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October 2003
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