Nobody needs reminding of this, shirley. But I just spent a happy half hour at this link which I stumbled on in the course of my, er, researches, and thought I would share. Quite apart from the music, has there ever been a more sustained stretch of graphic design brilliance than the 50s/60s Blue Note covers?* Discuss.
Here’s a very early example.
*Not just Blue Note either, plenty of other great stuff.
And another one.
Yes totally agree. Got a coffee table book of their covers. All those Jazz labels back then. Art was right on Daddyo
Andy Warhol did some very fine pen and ink work in this field, back when he was a commercial illustrator (his Kenny Burrell cover is linked below). The great Reid Miles, when he was Art Director for Blue Note, was asked why he cropped the top of musicians’ heads, said “no-one’s interested in what happens up there” (indicating above the eyebrows). Many contemporary designers copy his signature style (sorry – reference his work, or worse – channel him), but Blue Note was not only a vast resource of fantastic music but a gallery of great art, too. Treasure house label.
http://www.birkajazz.com/archive/blueNote1500.htm
Great link. Hadn’t really twigged to that predisposition towards partial decapitation, but its effective. Warhol’s contribution was news to me too.
Yes, another great resource.
Hers is a sad story, but was there ever a groovier jazz name than Jutta Hipp? There’s a street in Leipzig called Jutta Hipp Weg, apparently.
There’s a cool box set: http://besharpblog.wordpress.com/tag/jutta-hipp/
And a cool blog, thanks for that. “Not for the masses but the selected few”!
Great link. I used to giddily contemplate pages of these images and then feel the inexorable slide towards MusicMaster in Bath, where a week’s wages would disappear in a flurry of Blue Note acquisitions. When the Rudy Van Gelder re-issues started to appear, I knew I had to seek help, or financial oblivion beckoned. Then MusicMaster folded, and I was saved. Narrow escape; love this label.
In answer to the “Has there ever been …?” question – no, there hasn’t.
Fopp were doing the reissues on CD for £3 a few years ago and I’ve got a whole box of them.
Might have to slide from Rocksteady towards Blue Note today.
I seem to remember “Happenings” by Bobby Hutcherson from ’66 being particular brilliant.
Impulse covers were pretty damn good too.
https://thevinylfactory.com/features/gallery-a-visual-history-of-impulse-in-30-classic-record-sleeves/