Teasing the Korean Posted November 18, 2006 Report Share Posted November 18, 2006 Anyone know of a good resource - either online or book form - with a fairly indepth survey of jazz album cover designs and designers? Preferably NOT devoted to a single label, and preferably dealing with some obscure things that were done (semi) anonymously. Not sure if this exists, or if I'll have to get to work writing and researching it myself... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim R Posted November 18, 2006 Report Share Posted November 18, 2006 One of the best overviews, imo, focused on a variety of design approaches, was the Japanese book JAZZICAL MOODS. Unfortunately, it's been oop for years (afaik- I'd love to be wrong). A couple of years ago, there was a release called "In The Groove" by Eric Kohler (goes back to the 78 era, and includes sections on great cover artists like DSM, Alex Steinweiss, Jim Flora, Burt Goldblatt, Reid Miles and others). Not as diverse a variety of artists, and not the same quantity, but pretty good. There's also a webpage I remember seeing, with a long list of books on the subject... I'll see if I can turn it up (also, you may want to search the board for previous discussions). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teasing the Korean Posted November 18, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 18, 2006 One of the best overviews, imo, focused on a variety of design approaches, was the Japanese book JAZZICAL MOODS. Unfortunately, it's been oop for years (afaik- I'd love to be wrong). A couple of years ago, there was a release called "In The Groove" by Eric Kohler (goes back to the 78 era, and includes sections on great cover artists like DSM, Alex Steinweiss, Jim Flora, Burt Goldblatt, Reid Miles and others). Not as diverse a variety of artists, and not the same quantity, but pretty good. There's also a webpage I remember seeing, with a long list of books on the subject... I'll see if I can turn it up (also, you may want to search the board for previous discussions). That second one looks like it would at least provide a good start. Too bad it ends at 1960, but I guess it can't include everything... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brownie Posted November 18, 2006 Report Share Posted November 18, 2006 One of the best book on the record covers art was 'Jazz Album Covers, the Rare and the Beautiful' by Manek Daver It came out in 1994 in english and japanese. OOP and pretty expensive these days. It had special sections on David Stone Martin, Gil Mellé, Herman Leonard, Pierre Merlin, Frank Gauna, Andy Warhol and others. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Magnificent Goldberg Posted November 18, 2006 Report Share Posted November 18, 2006 There was a Japanese book specialising in sleeves of Soul Jazz albums. I can't remember the title; I spent a happy hour or so looking through it in the British Library. MG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim R Posted November 18, 2006 Report Share Posted November 18, 2006 One of the best book on the record covers art was 'Jazz Album Covers, the Rare and the Beautiful' by Manek Daver It came out in 1994 in english and japanese. OOP and pretty expensive these days. It had special sections on David Stone Martin, Gil Mellé, Herman Leonard, Pierre Merlin, Frank Gauna, Andy Warhol and others. I always forget about that one... and I own it. For some reason, I always forget that although it's got Daver's name on it, it's not just about David Stone Martin. Anyway, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neveronfriday Posted November 19, 2006 Report Share Posted November 19, 2006 Doesn't fit the bill, but I always liked this one For the Record. The Life and Work of Alex Steinweiss, Inventor of the Album Cover. Limited to his work and only some of it is/was jazz, but it's got some great covers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Beat Steve Posted November 19, 2006 Report Share Posted November 19, 2006 I second the plugs made here for JAZZICAL MOODS IN THE GROOVE JAZZ ALBUM COVERS (by Manek Daver) All are great in their own ways and nicely complement each other. They all leave you longing to see all the other covers that evidently were omitted from the books. IN THE GROOVE concentrates mainly on the 78 rpm and 10 inch periods and also shows quite a few non-Jazz album covers but the feature on Jim Flora and his zany artwork for RCA, for example, is great. Disregarding the single-label books on Blue Note and Pacific Jazz, there also are a few more multi-label books: CALIFORNIA COOL (published in 1992 by Edition Olms, Zurich/Switzerland) complements JAZZICAL MOODS (and the JAZZ WEST COAST book on Pacific Jazz covers). It concentrates on the Pacific Jazz and Contemporary labels but also features artwork of a few other West Coast labels. And then there is (was?) EAST COASTING (also published by Edition Olms, Zurich) featuring the cover art of Prestige, Riverside and Atlantic (plus a few East coast labels such as EmArcy, Columbia, Impulse, etc.). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chas Posted November 19, 2006 Report Share Posted November 19, 2006 And then there is (was?) EAST COASTING (also published by Edition Olms, Zurich) featuring the cover art of Prestige, Riverside and Atlantic (plus a few East coast labels such as EmArcy, Columbia, Impulse, etc.). AFAIK , this is identical to , New York Hot : East Coast Jazz of the 50's and 60's . Daver's The rare and the beautiful , lives up to its name . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michel1969 Posted November 19, 2006 Report Share Posted November 19, 2006 And then there is (was?) EAST COASTING (also published by Edition Olms, Zurich) featuring the cover art of Prestige, Riverside and Atlantic (plus a few East coast labels such as EmArcy, Columbia, Impulse, etc.). AFAIK , this is identical to , New York Hot : East Coast Jazz of the 50's and 60's . Daver's The rare and the beautiful , lives up to its name . The problem with those "New York Hot" and "Blue Note Cover art" is that most of the featured covers are NOT original but various reissues, (for example liberty and later pressings of Blue Note, OJC, etc...). Most of them have differences with the original. This is not a very serious job. Japanese books are far better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Beat Steve Posted November 19, 2006 Report Share Posted November 19, 2006 O.K., if you're a stickler for the typeface of those small label logo imprints somewhere in the upper corners of the covers then you're right. There are some that are later pressings (though not "most"). And if some of the Pacific Jazz covers show the Vogue imprint for a U.K. first pressing (instead of the U.S. one) then I can live pretty well with that. However, for all I know none of these books (not even the Japanese) were intended to be FIRST PRESSING album cover guides. So let's not overdo it. If you want to study the cover ART as such a repro reissue will do just as well as a DG original (disregarding the fact that deep grooves are hard to see in reduced-size prints of covers ). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teasing the Korean Posted November 19, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 19, 2006 Thanks for all of these suggestions. I have one of the Blue Note books, the West Coast book, and the Flora book. It sounds like at least 3 of the titles mentioned would compliment these well - if I can find them, that is! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michel1969 Posted November 19, 2006 Report Share Posted November 19, 2006 O.K., if you're a stickler for the typeface of those small label logo imprints somewhere in the upper corners of the covers then you're right. There are some that are later pressings (though not "most"). And if some of the Pacific Jazz covers show the Vogue imprint for a U.K. first pressing (instead of the U.S. one) then I can live pretty well with that. However, for all I know none of these books (not even the Japanese) were intended to be FIRST PRESSING album cover guides. So let's not overdo it. If you want to study the cover ART as such a repro reissue will do just as well as a DG original (disregarding the fact that deep grooves are hard to see in reduced-size prints of covers ). Yes but many japanese Prestige pressings have slight difference in the lettering and the color, for instance...many BN original have laminated covers (liberty have not), which is an importantt difference, at least in the way of photographying them.... So yes, it makes a difference in the design. Look for the picture of Sonny Rollins Vo 2 : its in fact very different from the original cover, reid Miles did Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim R Posted February 28, 2011 Report Share Posted February 28, 2011 Since this was one of only two threads I could find where Burt Goldblatt was mentioned (the other being a topic devoted to David Stone Martin), I thought I'd post a 10" cover that I just came across online. I've never seen it before, and I've seen quite a few. Anyway, with props to Burt Goldblatt and his distinctive style... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted February 28, 2011 Report Share Posted February 28, 2011 Great cover! I always enjoy browsing in this site: http://www.birkajazz.com/archive/columbia.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted February 28, 2011 Report Share Posted February 28, 2011 If you like the 10" covers, there's a sharity blog that specializes in 10" LPs of all genres and always has covers for them. I'll not post a link to that site here out of respect for our board's policies, but between your ingenuity and Bullmosse Jackson's mojo, it shouldn't be too hard to find... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Beat Steve Posted March 1, 2011 Report Share Posted March 1, 2011 I'll not post a link to that site here out of respect for our board's policies ... What kind of policy could THAT possibly be that sets out to prevent people from linking to other interesting sites that provide INFO to the collectors? You'd have to cut out 99% of all links posted here, then ... Again, what kind of weird rules would THAT be?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nessa Posted March 1, 2011 Report Share Posted March 1, 2011 Unauthorized downloads. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sonnymax Posted March 1, 2011 Report Share Posted March 1, 2011 I'll not post a link to that site here out of respect for our board's policies, but between your ingenuity and Bullmosse Jackson's mojo, it shouldn't be too hard to find... BowleggedWoman.com? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Beat Steve Posted March 1, 2011 Report Share Posted March 1, 2011 I'll not post a link to that site here out of respect for our board's policies, but between your ingenuity and Bullmosse Jackson's mojo, it shouldn't be too hard to find... BowleggedWoman.com? Got it. :crazy: But lots of non-jazz (and non-R&B, non-C&W) items out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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