Jump to content

Prestige / Muse / Cobblestone Artwork


Rabshakeh

Recommended Posts

I'm a big fan of the photography / text that is used on the covers of many of the later Prestige records and then on Cobblestone and Muse records.  Many of these were produced by Don Schlitten. 

They have a great combination of often quite raw / flawed photograph with clashing fonts and colours. The effect is gripping and rough, and far away from the well known too-cool-for-school "Reid Miles aesthetic" that gets associated with Prestige's main rival.

I pick these records up whenever I see them - luckily they are still often reasonably priced - and I get a thrill every time I handle them.

Does anyone know who was the art team behind these releases? I assume not Schlitten himself but did he have a team who followed him. 

Edited by Rabshakeh
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Schlitten actually did some/a lot of those designs, at least he's credited. He was originally(?) a photographer by trade, iirc.

Some, but not all.

You gotta look at the fine print on one of the corners, usually. Like this one, down in the lower left, in teeny-tiny red print.

ZWc.jpeg

Schlitten was sort of a one-man shop in many ways.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The covers usually only feature his name. Unless he used a third party designer, it must've been him who did most of the work.

In my opinion the 1960s Prestige LPs are still quite affordable because the quality of vinyl was quite spotty, unlike Blue Note's Plastylite. In other words, some of them sound rather poor, probably due to the cost cutting at whatever pressing plant Bob Weinstock contracted. In the 1970s, after he sold the company, the quality jumped immediately. I'm referring to the green LP labels..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 minutes ago, Dmitry said:

In my opinion the 1960s Prestige LPs are still quite affordable because the quality of vinyl was quite spotty, unlike Blue Note's Plastylite. In other words, some of them sound rather poor, probably due to the cost cutting at whatever pressing plant Bob Weinstock contracted. In the 1970s, after he sold the company, the quality jumped immediately. I'm referring to the green LP labels..

I'm sure that's a consideration for collectors, but I think that they're also just not that desirable to less committed jazz listeners. Blue Note and Impulse! are in coffee table book territory, with an aesthetic that is immediately recognisable by people who have never listened to music, and musicians who have become household names. That's reflected in the price of even the worst reissues of their catalogues. The Prestige / Muse / Cobblestone look isn't and nor are their artists. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

31 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Schlitten actually did some/a lot of those designs, at least he's credited. He was originally(?) a photographer by trade, iirc.

Some, but not all.

You gotta look at the fine print on one of the corners, usually. Like this one, down in the lower left, in teeny-tiny red print.

ZWc.jpeg

Schlitten was sort of a one-man shop in many ways.

Is that album as good as the cover suggests?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, JSngry said:

And you know, if you're thumbing through the Sonny Stitt section in the record store, that green is visible even before you get to it, it's like a destination record if you know what I mean, you're not going to NOT know it's there.

Yep.  It's striking.

If I ever wrote a book about jazz in the 1970s, Constellation would be one of the album images featured on the book cover.  

 

39 minutes ago, mjazzg said:

Thanks to your and Hutchfan's advocacy and enthusiasm for Moody I'm always primed to investigate

Moody is a Mo-Fo.  No doubt about it.  :)

 

Speaking of Moody ...

R-4496677-1548983328-1449.jpeg.jpg

Badass.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Rabshakeh said:

Some examples of what I'm talking about for anyone not familiar:

[snip]

R-4499831-1623166947-5394.jpg

 

Love that cover.  The photo of Byard is perfect.  

With straightforward typography and image placement, you've (almost) automatically got one of the best Prestige covers -- based on the strength of the photo alone.

 

 

If the Byard cover above captures Prestige in the mid-1960s; I think this is a great example of Prestige in the early-1970s:

61RJO9eVgEL._SL500_.jpg

This is designed by Ron Warwell, who also did McCoy's Sahara.

 

 

EDIT:
I think this would make an interesting topic for inquiry: "Politics and Political Imagery on Jazz Albums Covers,1960-1975."  Has anything like this been written about? ...  I know we're not supposed to talk politics here on the board.  So I'm just askin', not taking us there.

 

Don't mean to de-rail your thread, Rab.  Back to our regularly-scheduled programming ...  :) 

 

Edited by HutchFan
Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, JSngry said:

The Muse CD added a bonus cut of "Highest Mountain" that is certainly worthy. I don't know which would be harder to find today, that or the LP.

I’ve seen it on CD out in the wild a few times, but I guess that was 12-15 years ago. I used to have one myself, but traded it off in the great purge before I moved to DC.

Lot to like about it, but I never connected with it super-deeply, for some reason.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...