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the disturbing part is that it says 192 pages... on the amazon.com page it says 400 pages and May 2008 :blink:

http://www.amazon.com/Covers-Taschen-Sprin...5471&sr=8-1

We'll see about that when the book is finally for sale on the bookshelves, I guess... :D

BTW, when the debate about this book was going on here at full speed late last summer I inquired at my local #1 stockist of the full Taschen range and the (usually fairly knowledgeable) staff had NOT heard about ANY announcement of such a book at all nor did the complete Taschen catalog they let me take home list anything.

I'm just as much looking forward to publication of this book but am having doubts about the outcome. AFAIK these protracted doings are not that typical of Taschen policy.

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  • 6 months later...

It's featured on the Taschen website now

cover_va_jazz_covers_0804091138_id_146909.jpg

Details are available here:

http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/...jazz_covers.htm

Looks like the 496-page book should be out in September.

Have lowered my expectations on it since there seems to be images from non original releases. Among others, the 'Explosive Side of Sarah Vaughan' cover shows the British Columbia issue, not the original US Roulette LP. And there seems to be more like this :(

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Have lowered my expectations on it since there seems to be images from non original releases. Among others, the 'Explosive Side of Sarah Vaughan' cover shows the British Columbia issue, not the original US Roulette LP. And there seems to be more like this :(

My concern is not so much the non-original covers , as it is the duplication of covers that have already appeared in various jazz cover art books over the years . Instead of Blue Note and Impulse covers and the like , I was hoping the book would showcase smaller label covers and 10-inch and 7-inch covers . I've been thinking of starting a thread devoted to 10-inch covers , and may do so if the Taschen book turns out to be deficient in that area .

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IMO the inclusion of "non-original" issues is no concern really as long as the artwork merits inclusion. If the only difference of concurrent non-US releases is the label tag, then .... well ... And some European (or other) parallel or second releases would warrant inclusion, e.g. the totally different (but nonetheless intriguing) U.K. Esquire covers of LP's originally released on U.S. Prestige.

My concern is not so much the non-original covers , as it is the duplication of covers that have already appeared in various jazz cover art books over the years . Instead of Blue Note and Impulse covers and the like , I was hoping the book would showcase smaller label covers and 10-inch and 7-inch covers . I've been thinking of starting a thread devoted to 10-inch covers , and may do so if the Taschen book turns out to be deficient in that area .

As for duplications, I do have the same concerns, but what do you expect? BLUE NOTE and IMPULSE et al. spell $ALE$ $ALE$ $ALE$ in these circles as not everybody of those who stumble on this book now has those other books your are referring to and besides, who among the "impulse buyers" of lifestyle Taschen books could be bothered to investigate what a Mode or Dig or (whatever other somewhat minor label) cover is? No spontaneous association with the label there. A 10in or EP cover book would be a nice idea indeed but I don't seem much chances for 10in cover art books (beyond what has already been done) because with 10in LP's you are limiting yourself to a rather narrow time frame in the production of LP covers and therefore also to a somewhat narrow stylistic frame of whatever was usually done in that part of the 50s. And the way today's world and its trends function, you CANNOT do such a book without including a sizable portion of 60s (i.e. non-10in era) covers, possibly even 70s covers. It's all about market (and marketing) forces at work. Unfortunately ...

So let's hope the price makes it worthwhile anyway.

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Now here's a curiosity. I went to the website and clicked on the panel that has the covers of Coltrane's Love Supreme, Courtney Pine and Morgan's "The Rumproller."

A new window opened just large enough to make out the text--that substitutes a description of Melvin Sparks as "Master of the Groove" under the Coltrane picture, says Morgan is "an Argentine pianist and composer" and discusses Miles' soundtrack "Ascenseur..." under Courtney Pine. Now those are some serious typos.....

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  • 2 months later...

You can look at the entire book (some 497 pages) through the link brownie posted above.

Not a bad book overall. I know I would have pre-ordered this a few years ago, but (for now at least) I'll take a raincheck.

Quick first impressions:

• too many (for my taste) Gabor Szabo covers

• too many (for my taste) Archie Shepp covers

• no Saturn covers for Sun Ra (what?!)

• one Lacy cover — one?

• I dig the Giuffre covers

A lot of covers I hadn't seen. It looks like a fun book to have.

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i'm thoroughly confused at this point. there seem to be two or three different books being discussed here or displayed on the amazon website. there's the original hardcover 1000 jazz covers that began this thread. there's what appears to be a paperback version of that original book that's scheduled to be released at the beginning of november. and then there's a book a lot of people are discussing entitled jazz covers that is on sale now (released in july). trouble is, i'm seeing listings for 1000 jazz covers that use the cover for jazz covers. :wacko:

can someone take the time to help an old man work through this mishmash?

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  • 3 weeks later...

The book is out by now. It is reasonably priced. But it's just a book with 1,000 jazz covers. The good and the not so good.

You can preview the full opus when you click on 'Leaf through!' here

Thank you for sharing with us. Too many Liberty version of the classic Wolff / Miles Blue Note... same old problem.

Is any jazz cover book complete without this one ?

120073517125.jpg

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I did order the book. I like it, but it certainly has shortcomings. The usual suspects, particularly Miles Davis and John Coltrane, get the most covers. Very few for Ellington for instance. As far as "early" covers go, there are a fair number from Norman Granz productions and not so much otherwise. Overall tilted towards Blue Note, Prestige, Riverside, but plenty of unusual choices from lesser known labels. Certainly there are a number I would have included (Magnificent Thad Jones, for instance). I suppose my main complaint is that I couldn't tell what the criterion was for selection. Grouping by musician rather than label or designer undercuts the design aspects and basically leaves it as an interesting selection of jazz covers.

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I had low expectations for the book and it met them . I imagine that as with Mosaic , licensing played a part in the choices , but even within those limitations more interesting choices could've been made . I'd like to have seen many more 10-inch covers and perhaps even some of the more interesting back covers as well . Minimizing duplication with other previously published cover art books doesn't seem to have been a priority . Manek Daver's Jazz Album Covers: The Rare and the Beautiful remains the best book on the subject to date .

Is any jazz cover book complete without this one ?

120073517125.jpg

More to the point , is any jazz piano music collection complete without this one ? I'd say , "No" .

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This still seems to be elusive in the UK. Amazon.UK don't have it and an order to an Amazon seller came back with delivery in four days followed by a refund a day later as out of stock. Nevertheless this seller is still advertising the book as in stock!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

It looks like the "1000 jazz covers" Taschen book (see the cover in the opening post) was never released, but many shopping pages use the same product title and promo text for the 650 cover book that finally came out.

Edited by Claude
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