It is usually a surprise for people when they learn that Yousuf Karsh photographed Dizzy Gillespie. The jazz musician posed in 1990, for Karsh’s American Legends project. In the book, Karsh wrote: “Although the co-inventor of bebop “changed the whole concept of American music,” the trumpet was not his instrument of first choice. Luckily for the development of jazz, his arms were too short for the trombone!”

See the other notable people who were photographed in 1990 and 1991 for American Legends.