Ju ne, 2017 RollingStoneAus.com | Rolling Stone | 39
James Brown’s
Quiet Time, 1984
‘I
wish I could say that I spent hours with the Godfather
of Soul, shooting rolls and rolls of fi lm, but in fact I only
had about fi ve minutes with him,” recalls Laura Levine.
“Those fi ve minutes, however, were unforgettable, not unlike
an audience with the Pope.
“For 15 years, beginning in 1980, New York City hosted an
annual music event called the New Music Seminar; it brought
together musicians, fans and music industry people for a week
of gigs, trade shows and panel discussions.
“James Brown was in town for the artists’ panel along with
Afrika Bambaataa; they’d just recorded a song together. He was
staying in the Presidential Suite at the Hilton Hotel during the
seminar. Somehow I managed to convince the powers-that-be
to allow me a quick photo shoot with Mr. Dynamite. When I en-
tered his penthouse suite I was immediately struck by its simple
elegance, with a magnifi cent grand piano as the centrepiece.
“Whenever I’d do a portrait session with a musician who
had a powerful public image, my aim was often to try to go
against the grain in order to reveal another, more intimate side
of them. In this case, I wanted to show the pensive private per-
son behind the Hardest Working Man in Show Business. To me,
a serene, regal, and contemplative JB at one with his grand
piano in the elegant penthouse suite said it all.
“Years later I was told that there were other people in the
room with us. If there were, I honestly couldn’t tell you. The
only things that existed to me in those few precious minutes
were James Brown, his piano, and my camera.”Photographed by Laura Levine