Jazz photographer Herman Leonard dies at 87

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jazz scene photographer Herman Leonard, famous for his smoky, backlighted black-and-white photos of such greats as Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis and Frank Sinatra, has died. He was 87.

Leonard, who moved to Los Angeles after Hurricane Katrina flooded his New Orleans home and destroyed thousands of his prints, died Saturday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Los Angeles.

Leonard was considered one of the great mid-century jazz scene photographers. He started in the late 1940s and left a rich chronicle of a musical era with photos taken in New York, Paris and London through the 1960s.

The Smithsonian has more than 130 Leonard photographs in its permanent collection.