In 1960 O’Neal was introduced to a representative of the Central Intelligence Agency and ultimately accepted employment with that organization. He reported for duty in January 1963 and remained with the CIA in Washington D.C. and New York City until 1976. He served in the US Army during the same period, rising to the rank of Captain. The nature of his employment allowed him the flexibility of pursuing other interests during these years.
Music
During a forty-year career in music, he formed two record companies, Chiaroscuro Records and Hammond Music Enterprises, built two recording studios, produced over 200 jazz LPs/CDs and - in conjunction with his business partner, Shelley M. Shier and their production company, HOSS, Inc. - over 100 music festivals, published a number of books and articles on jazz, photographed most of the giants of jazz from the second half of the 20th Century, exhibited these photographs regularly, and served on the boards of various non-profit organizations that serve the jazz community, including the Jazz and Contemporary Music Program of The New School, The Jazz Foundation of America and more recently the Jazz Gallery and the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. He is a lifetime member of The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
Photography
He began taking photographs while a teenager, and began to pursue the field seriously in 1969, when he bought a professional camera and began documenting recording sessions and jazz concerts that he was producing. Long before Berenice Abbott admonished him to always have a project, he undertook his first, in rural East Texas during 1970-1973. These photographs led to his first exhibition in September 1973, at The Open Mind Gallery in New York City. In the 1970s he associated with a diverse group of photographers, notably Walker Evans, André Kertész and most importantly, Berenice Abbott, with whom he worked for the last 19 years of her life. From 1970 to 1999, O’Neal also published numerous books related to photography. In 1999, at the urging of gallery directorEvelyne Daitz, he had a major retrospective of his work to that point at The Witkin Gallery. Since that time, he has focused his activities toward photography, and continues to mount exhibitions yearly throughout the U.S. and Canada. In 2003 his photographic career was summarized in a profile in The New York Times.
Humanitarian causes
O'Neal sits on the Honorary Founders Board of The Jazz Foundation of America. He worked with the Jazz Foundation to save the homes and the lives of America's elderly jazz and blues musicians including musicians who survived Hurricane Katrina. During 40 years in the music business, O’Neal has served on the boards of various non-profit organizations, including the Jazz Foundation of America, the Jazz Museum in Harlem, the Jazz Gallery and the Jazz and Contemporary Program of The New School.
