Ted Williams (1925-2009) first heard jazz on the radio as a youngster in the 1930s in Wichita, Kansas. Williams merged his love of music and photography and moved to Chicago in the 1940s where he captured unguarded photographic studies of some of the era’s greatest jazz musicians.

His work appeared in major international publications including Time, Newsweek, Look, Playboy and Ebony. His coverage of the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival landed him a spectacular 21-page layout in DownBeat magazine.

Williams was active on the jazz scene from the late 1940s until the late 1970s and photographed many of the greats in jazz.

Williams’ historic archive runs to more than 100,000 images and comprises perhaps the most intimate and complete collection of Jazz’s greatest musicians at work, rest and play.