Black and White and Blue

I'm taking a moment for some jazz, cool or hot, either way. Grab some coffee and check out the fabulous Blue Note label album cover design by Reid Miles. Reid Miles mixed graphic text treatment with photography by Francis Wolff or himself with groovy results. A few years ago I joined other creatives bitching about creating album cover art for the CD insert format versus the lusciously large LP albums. I got used to it and created some fun stuff. Now the CD format insert is going away and the album art is being relegated a small blurb on a Myspace page surrounded by badly designed web garbage. AAAARRRGGGG! ...OK, I'm OK now. In addition to the Blue Note covers above I have included a few of my own images shot during a former life as a bartender at Chicago's "the Jazz Bulls" nite club which until it's demise it was the longest continuously open jazz bar in Chicago. Every once in a while I miss it, for about five minutes. Still it was a good side gig for a starting photographer.
Left to right we have latin jazz drummer Louis Everleigh, trumpet legend Freddie Hubbard and sax master Branford Marsalis. I think that the Blue Note covers blend music, photography and design in a way we don't see in music packaging today, but at least the music is still here. If you are new to jazz and not sure where to start, try the album Kind of Blue by Miles Davis. It is an essential jazz album that is sure to satisfy. Download and then pop it on as you browse the Blue Note covers online here.