Ted Williams died on October 13, 2009. Williams was active on the jazz scene from the 1940s until the late 1970s. He photographed many of the greats in jazz, including Miles, Ellington, Dizzy, Sarah Vaughan and Louis Armstrong. His photo library contains over 90,000 images and over 300 jazz artists. However, he didn’t just photograph jazz. Williams took assignments to shoot wars, sports and international events, such as the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. His photos appeared in Time, Newsweek, Playboy, Ebony and JazzTimes. He was, until very recently, one of America's most underappreciated great artists and chronicler of Jazz and the Civil Rights struggle. Multiple Books and exhibits devoted to his work have appeared in the last few years. He is just beginning to get his due. Minimal research should make clear Williams' enormous significance to interested parties.
What makes this photograph even more unique is the fact that Williams took very few photographs of Blues performers, and even fewer to none exist of Blues performers on Maxwell Street.
Blues Harmonica great Good Rockin' Charles was a Chicago staple and Blues singer, guitar, and Mandolin player Johnny "Man" Young was one of the first electric blues greats to burst onto the Chicago scene. Their significance is enormous.
Finally, as stated in biographical and autobiographical texts and, as discussed in Jim Jarmusch's recent documentary, Gimme Danger, in 1966-67, before forming the Stooges, Iggy Pop decided to leave Michigan and come to Chicago in pursuit of "real Blues shit". He would drum for Johnny Young and the likes of Big Walter Horton.
This framed, signed rarity was part of the permanent wall art at the Chicago Virgin Megastore, which closed in 2007.