INSTRUMENTHEAD: REVEALED

“When you mix art and music like you’ve done here, it’s just phenomenal. It doesn’t get any better than this,” the great Allen Toussaint once said to photographer Michael Weintrob.  The exhibition was for his 2017 book Instrumenthead, where Weintrob photographed 369 musicians with their signature instruments covering their heads, for some of the most unusual portraits in modern music.  “This is where musicians’ heads are really at,” adds Weintrob.   The book won the Independent Publisher Book Award for Most Outstanding Design.

 

Weintrob’s companion book Instrumenthead:  Revealed will be published April 26, 2022 and will showcase “unmasked” portraits of these same musicians, including Bootsy Collins, Susan Tedeschi, Mickey Hart, Johnny Winter, Charlie Musselwhite, all with their own style and artistry.  Preorder is available now at Instrumenthead.com.

 

Three dollars of every book sold will benefit the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic.  Founded by a coalition of music advocates in 1998, the New Orleans’ Musicians’ Clinic is the first medical clinic for musicians, performing artists and cultural workers in the US. 

 

“I want to do my part to inspire people to learn about new music and the artists who create it,” adds Weintrob, who photographed the unmasked portraits during the original Instrumenthead sessions.   “I love to connect and break down walls with my photography.  Everyone has the ability to be a kid again. This book is really special, because we’re unmasking the original photos. The book reflects the new energy this year.” 

 

On April 25 at the Exit/In in Nashville, Weintrob along with Volume.com will be kicking off the release of Reveled with a photo exhibition and a special performances by Victor Wooten and Friends + Peter Levin and Friends, celebrating the Music of Gregg Allman and the Allman Brothers Band, featuring Luther Dickinson, Lamar Williams, Jr., Jimbo Hart, Chad Gamble and Audley Freed, plus special guests.  Tickets are available here, and the show can be viewed on Instrumentheadlive.com and Volume.com.

 

Concert promoter Peter Shapiro added, “Michael Weintrob brings a new approach and new ideas to how to capture musicians in a way where their soul shines through, often in a way that doesn’t come through during the best jam session on-stage. It’s Michael’s ability to capture their inner spirit off-stage that separates him from others, and makes him one of the best music photographers of his generation.”

 

Victor Wooten adds, “Michael Weintrob is a musician, not just any kind, he is musician of the highest caliber. The difference between Michael, myself, and all the other subjects in this work of art is that Michael’s instrument is a camera. Weintrob is a visionary!  As we all journey toward a better tomorrow, there seems to be no better time than now to lower our masks and unveil the faces behind the Instrument Heads.”

 

 

 

About Michael Weintrob 

Two decades of navigating the music business and transforming the storytelling of image, photographer Michael Weintrob’s work spans all aspects of industry. Created in the field where he has shot over 5,000 artists in-concert or his Brooklyn studio, Weintrob’s work covers everything from advertising to editorial needs showcasing the live element of performance and conceptual campaigns of portraiture.

 

Weintrob has acted as house photographer for Red Rocks Amphitheater, The Festival Network, the CareFusion Jazz Festival Series, and Bluegrass Underground, and is currently the house pick for OZ Nashville’s Brave New Art celebrating its inaugural season.

 

Major exhibitions of work have been hosted in Spain by the US Consulate, in New Orleans during the Jazz and Heritage Festival and in Charleston for the Spoleto Art Festival and the Newport Jazz Festival. His work benefits the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic and Assistance Foundation, Sweet Relief Musicians Fund, Rock the Earth, The Music Maker Foundation and the Newport Festivals Foundation with plans to continue giving as long as there are stories to tell.