Just this past weekend, I was treated to a Sunday afternoon with my friend Chris’ massive collection of CDs, which includes a ton of essential jazz albums from the likes of , , and . I may have mentioned in past posts that some of the most prolific design inspiration I’ve ever had comes from the masterful design and art direction of Reid Miles for Blue Note Records, one of if not the greatest jazz label in the history of the genre. Reid Miles joined Blue Note in around 1955 after being hired from out of his job at Esquire Magazine by Record Exec and Photographer Francis Wolff, whose photographs Reid would incorporate constantly in his album artwork. I constantly look back at the Vintage Vanguard archives for inspiration, ever since I first discovered the archive via ISO50 Blog. While not every one of today’s music picks come from the Blue Note catalogue (some of them do), they all give an appropriate aural stimuli to complement their representative cover art. Reid’s design work for Blue Note would come to be as influential in it’s respective field as the music it illustrated and communicated, and it’s for good reason– there is an impeccable sense of good, refined, well-directed, consistent branding and design at the core, that while no longer nearly as prevelant today, it’s still being internalized and applied in some of the haute-ist of design circles.

Miles Davis – Tadd’s Delight – ‘Round About Midnight

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John Coltrane – Blue Train – Blue Train

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Thelonius Monk Quartet with John Coltrane – Monk’s Mood – At Carnegie Hall

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Sonny Clark – Deep Night – Cool Struttin’

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What’s that? You want to see a bunch more beautiful covers?

Seriously, if you enjoy, go dig up your friend or parents’ old CD or record collection, or better yet, grab some of these albums off iTunes! No other kind of music makes for quite as much stylish productivity as good jazz music.

Posted in Album Artwork and Design and Music Posted by Alex on Sep 20 2010 07:49 pm

Tags: Album Cover Design, Blue Note Records, Francis Wolff, Jazz, John Coltrane, Mid-Century, Miles Davis, Reid Miles, Sonny Clark, Thelonius Monk