Thank You Roy

I once wrote that Roy DeCarava was an artist with a timeless vision for beauty and a wonderful teacher with a sensibility for teaching artistic freedom. Today he left us, yet he leaves us with many lessons and memories to treasure. I am forever changed by his beauty and remain astounded by paths and circumstances that lead me to experience his grace and love for life.

I thank him for many things, but tonight I will specify one. I find myself on an eternal quest to discover music, and Roy used to play Sarah Vaughn, Coltrane, and other legends of jazz in the classroom when I studied photography with him at Hunter College . He gave me a list he prepared for his students who show interest in the music he played, a list of his personal favorite jazz albums to enjoy, almost like an introductory course in Jazz, Jazz 101. From that list I discovered a song, which I can easily say, is and will remain my favorite song of all time. There are over 50 recorded versions of this song titled For All We Know, written in 1934 by J. Fred Coots and Sam M. Lewis, but no one invokes the deep emotion of these lyrics like Aretha Franklin,

and tonight I dedicate this song to Roy.


DarkJive's blog post on The Sweet Flypaper of Life
New York Times Parting Glance: Roy DeCarava