All photos from The Power of Jazz by John Watson (published by blurb.com) © John Watson 2010.

The Power of Jazz is a collection of more than 140 colour and black and white images of jazz legends and rising stars by UK-based photographer and writer John Watson. It is a large-landscape coffee table hardback book printed on premium paper, and is exclusively available to buy on line at the www.blurb.com bookstore. Among the musicians photographed by Watson over a period of nearly 40 years, and featured in the book, are Chet Baker, Oscar Peterson, Gil Evans, Sonny Rollins, Esbjorn Svensson, Herbie Hancock and singers Kurt Elling, Jane Monheit and Dame Cleo Laine. Locations for the photographs include The Village Vanguard and The Jazz Standard Club in New York, The Barbican and the BBC Maida Vale studios in London, the Brecon Jazz Festival in Wales, the Cheltenham Jazz Festival, The Sage at Gateshead and Symphony Hall, Birmingham.

John Watson is a professional photographer and writer whose photographs and articles are regularly featured in Jazz Journal, Britain's longest-established jazz publication. He is based in the West Midlands, and works all over the UK photographing artists at festivals and concerts. His work has been used by BBC Publications, as well as by many magazines and newspapers, and has featured in concert and festival programmes as well as CD booklets. He is a member of the Jazz Journalists Association.

A month-long exhibition of his photography has been staged at Symphony Hall in Birmingham, and he was nominated in the United States in the "Jazz Photo of the Year" category in the Jazz Journalists Association 2009 Jazz Awards.