Although he will always be particularly remembered for his pictures of jazz musicians, William Claxton was a photographer of wideranging interests and skills, covering fashion, the movies and many aspects of popular music. In many ways his work may be said to parallel in black-and-white images the innovative improvisational sounds of his favourite jazzmen from the 1950s to the 1990s.

As the cover photographer for Richard Bock’s Pacific Jazz record label, which was based in Claxton’s home area of Los Angeles, he was the man who created the pin-up image of the trumpeter Chet Baker in the 1950s, as well as a whole sequence of airy, sunny photographs associated with the “West Coast Cool” movement.

Among the best of these are portraits of the youthful Gerry Mulligan, beautifully detailed pictures of the saxophonists Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh on a day-trip to New York’s Central Park, and a Japanese-flavoured set featuring the flautist Bud Shank, out of focus behind a small child examining the details of a sprig of orange blossom.

Claxton also created memorable images of African-American jazz players. His portraits of Charlie Parker, shot in an improvised studio at his parents’ home, capture something of the soul of the man, as does the burning intensity of his 1959 sequence of Ornette Coleman, one of which was used on the cover of Coleman’s groundbreaking album The Shape of Jazz To Come.

In other memorable shots, the boogie woogie pianist Meade Lux Lewis displays his ample girth at a battered upright instrument covered in practice books, and the airy trumpeting of Kenny Dorham at an outdoor festival is symbolised by a signwriting aeroplane, soaring upwards behind the musician’s back.Claxton saw close connections between his photographic art and that of the musicians he shot, saying: “They’re alike in their improvisation and their spontaneousness. They happen at the same moment that you’re hearing something and you’re seeing something, and you record it and it's frozen forever.”

Despite his intuitive feel for the camera, Claxton never studied photography. Indeed he abandoned his initial course in psychology at UCLA to work for Bock’s fledgeling record label, but he later returned to study and held two degrees in psychology and an MA in the psychology of art. He had grown up among a musical family in the La Cañnada Flintridge district of Los Angeles, but had no patience to learn an instrument himself, preferring to collect records and attend concerts.This stood him in good stead in later life, as he became a master of the informal photograph of a jazz club jam session or a festival stage.

His eye for the exact moment to take a picture was legendary, and few better examples exist than his pictures of Erroll Garner at work in a television studio, where Claxton mastered the tricky lighting to capture Garner’s face looking up bathed in light, his bandmembers silhouetted behind him.

In 1959 he married the fashion model Peggy Moffitt, who had inspired numerous designs by Rudi Gernreich. When Gernreich produced a topless swimsuit for her to model, Claxton achieved instant notoriety in the fashion press for his tasteful but teasingly provocative pictures, taking the pragmatic view that if anyone was going to photograph his wife halfnaked it ought be him. This launched him into the world of fashion, and he directed one of the first short films of catwalk style called Basic-Black which is now regarded as a prototype of the fashion video. A copy is preserved in New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

After working for Vogue and Paris Match, Claxton became a regular photographer for Life magazine and during his years there he shot his memorable images of Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand and Steve McQueen, all stars who were sensitive about how they were portrayed on film but whose trust he gained. He became a close friend of McQueen, sharing his love of speed and machinery.

As his portfolio of record covers grew, with the likes of Ray Charles added to his list of favourite subjects, Claxton became a founder member of the Recording Academy, which produces the annual Grammy Awards. He was an prize-winner himself, gaining the coveted “Lucie” for lifetime achievement at the 2003 International Photography Awards.

He collaborated with Vincent Price and Terry Southern on various book projects, but he also brought out thirteen sumptuous collections of his own photography, mainly published by Taschen as arthouse publications, of which the best-known was simply called Jazz.

Claxton is survived by his wife, and by his son Chris.

William Claxton, photographer, was born on October 12, 1927. He died on October 11, 2008, aged 80