posted on 29 Aug 2016

 

The Cover Art of Blue Note Records with a foreword by Horace Silver edited by Graham Marsh, Glyn Callingham and Felix Cromey

When I was a young teenager I thought there was simply no-one with a cooler image than the mid-60s Bob Dylan. He had everything right – the clothes were lived in and stylishly beaten-up, the hair was a mist of unprimped fuzz and the ever-present shades gave him an air of insouciant nonchalance. All around him the contemporary rock counter-culture was heading in another direction altogether; long lank hair and cheesecloth or bearded monsters in greatcoats, huge flares and tie-die. Not at all cool. Bob just sauntered past them in the style stakes, sweeping them aside not only with his huge song-writing talent but his distinctive sense of anti-fashion.

However, by the mid-70s I had started to get seriously interested in jazz – but I really didn’t know too much about it. What I did know was that I just loved Miles Davis and that judging by the pictures I’d seen of him in the 50s and 60s, here was someone who could give Dylan a run for his money in the cool style stakes. There was one pose in particular that simply enraptured me – a beautifully cut Italian-style or tonic suit, crisp shirt open at the top button and a loosened slim-jim tie adorned the languid musical genius caressing a trumpet that he could make speak, cry and roar.

Miles Davis led me further into the world of the jazz clubs of the 50s and 60s and opened up a whole gallery of super-stylish musical geniuses – John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Dexter Gordon, Art Blakey, Horace Silver : hell, they even had fantastic names!

And then there were the records. How could this super cool world of jazz produce anything other than miraculously crafted and fabulous record sleeves that were works of art in their own right? And at the top of this tree was the legendary label – Blue Note. Blue Note record sleeves not only housed the important chunk of vinyl but conferred on the owner a little brushstroke of stylish taste. Owning Blue Note records said something about you – something that can’t be translated into words but something you’ll understand if you’ve been there.

 

This book by Marsh, Callingham and Cromey does exactly what it promises and brings you a selection of those great record sleeves. There is a short introductory foreword by Horace Silver and short comments from Cromey and Marsh but other than that it’s all about the art of the sleeves. And there are some great examples here as you’ll see from the ones I’ve included. Many of the reproductions are full page and virtually the same size and shape as the original record – so you get the full impact.

A second volume was also produced with a red cover rather than this blue one but the format is exactly the same – presenting the sleeves as works of art that capture a specific jazz culture and the ethos that lay behind the artists that were portrayed in the designs.

Since discovering the world of Blue Note I’ve always thought that if my good fairy offered me the chance to go back and be part of a specific ‘scene’ this is the one I’d choose without a moments hesitation – it just never got better than this.

Copies of this book are readily available on the second-hand market but you may have to spend up to £20 to get one in decent condition.

 

Terry Potter

August 2016