Blakey Jazz
The Innovation Of The Blue Note Design
For album lovers everywhere, one of the biggest draws to the vinyl record is the palette format that creates for distinctive cover art. And regardless of what genre you prefer, album art has become more than just an industry term, but a full-grown medium. While software like Photoshop has enabled today’s designer to produce vinyl album covers that defy convention, they owe a debt of gratitude to those that pioneered the form.
For jazz enthusiasts, the parade of distinct Blue Note Records covers remain emblematic not only in the musical world, but in pop culture also. Perhaps the key element in creating the signature look that defines jazz vinyl art is the photographic style of Francis Wolff. Wolff instantly found his childhood friend Alfred Lion, one of the co-founders of the label after he migrated to the United States in 1939. During World War II, Wolff was also helpful in maintaining the inexperienced label’s catalog in print.
Blue Note discovered the last piece of the design puzzle in 1956. The label employed Reid Miles, an artist who was appointed by Esquire Magazine, and the utmost line of jazz vinyl covers was born. Often featuring Wolff’s photographs of musicians in the studio, the cover art produced by Miles proved to be as important in the world of graphic design as the music would be in the world of jazz. Under the guiding hand and watchful eye of Miles, Blue Note quickly became known for their striking jazz vinyl cover designs. Main features like tinted black-and-white photographs, the use of sans-serif typefaces and a careful restricting of the color palette – often black and white with a single color – and the repeated use of solid rectangular bands of color or white, were directly influenced by the Bauhaus school of design. Some of Reid’s best-known work includes Sonny Clark’s “Cool Struttin,” Art Blakey’s “A Night in Tunisia,” John Coltraine’s “Blue Train,” Kenny Dorham’s “Trompeta Tocatta” and Herbie Hancock’s “My Point of View.”
Though Miles’ work is closely associated with Blue Note, in his personal tastes, Miles was only a casual jazz fan. Blue Note gave him several copies of the many dozens of jazz vinyl albums he designed, but Miles gave most to friends and sold them to second-hand record shops. Further emblematic of the influence of the Blue Note design work, a few mid-1950s jazz vinyl covers feature drawings by an as-yet-known Andy Warhol.
Art blakey’s Jazz Messengers – Dat Dere
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Art Blakey Magnet $2.00 This magnet features the famed jazz drummer Art Blakey…. |
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Moanin’ (The Rudy Van Gelder Edition) $5.00 … |
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Somethin’ Else $4.90 When alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley culled together this quartet, he grabbed three champions from seemingly disparate schools to complement his flinty solos: Miles Davis, the king of cool; Art Blakey, the thundering force of hard bop; Hank Jones, a veteran of swing; and Sam Jones, a versatile bassist adaptable to nearly any setting. The results are one of Blue Note’s most beloved albums. The… |
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Art Blakey and the jazz messengers Blue notes 4003 $4.63 All products are BRAND NEW and factory sealed. Fast shipping and 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed…. |
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A Great Day in Harlem [VHS] $8.97 And what a day it was: nearly 60 jazz musicians, gathered on a Harlem street one morning in 1958 for what photographer Art Kane rightly, if immodestly, calls “the greatest picture of that era of musicians ever taken” (incredibly, it was also Kane’s first professional shoot). Like Ken Burns’s Jazz, this 60-minute documentary, an Oscar nominee in 1995, is a mixed-media affair: still photographs and … |
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The Jazz Messenger [VHS] $19.98 … |
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Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers [VHS] $18.99 … |
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A Great Day in Harlem $12.69 And what a day it was: nearly 60 jazz musicians, gathered on a Harlem street one morning in 1958 for what photographer Art Kane rightly, if immodestly, calls “the greatest picture of that era of musicians ever taken” (incredibly, it was also Kane’s first professional shoot). Like Ken Burns’s Jazz, this 60-minute documentary, an Oscar nominee in 1995, is a mixed-media affair: still photographs and … |
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Jazz Icons: Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers Live in ’58 $7.24 The edition of drummer Art Blakey’s protean Jazz Messengers featured on this DVD had been together for just a couple of months when Live in ’58 was recorded in Brussels, Belgium. As it happened, this quintet would stay together for barely half a year–but what a lineup it was, with Blakey joined by pianist Bobby Timmons, tenor saxophonist Benny Golson, bassist Jymie Merritt, and the astonishing 20… |
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Classic Drum Solos and Drum Battles DVD $11.88 CLASSIC DRUM SOLOS – DVD Movie… |
