By Carl Glatzel, Editor
The man with a thousand layouts up his sleeve, Reid Miles has been a major influence on my personal design aesthetic throughout my career. His style exudes modernism with the occasional nod to the Bauhaus and International Style—God was always in the details.
Miles began working at Blue Note Records in the late-50s where he would go on to design almost 500 record sleeves. He typically worked on tight deadlines, oftentimes restricted to a 2-color palette and limited typefaces. He would at times hand-cut his own letterforms to realize some of his concepts, some of which are still emulated to this day. Layouts would range from economical and austere to complex and detailed with the occasional visual pun.
Layouts would range from economical and austere to complex and detailed with the occasional visual pun.
Among Miles’ collaborators, Blue Note co-founder, Francis Wolff, was his most prolific. Wolff doubled as staff photographer on hundreds of album covers—offering jazz enthusiasts intimate artist portraiture taken during and throughout recording sessions.
The early-60s witnessed the multi-faceted Miles adding photography to his list of duties, which would soon usher in a dramatic career change in the mid-60s and ultimately his departure from Blue Note. His photographic style proved to be just as modern and forward thinking as his layouts—displaying an interest in experimental techniques and the avant-garde.
The handful of album covers chosen to illustrate this post typifies Miles’ recognizable design and playful photography.
Donate to JazzSherpa
Help support this jazz blog and make a small donation to help purchase material to review.
$5.00
Advertising Jazz
By Carl Glatzel, Editor
Sharing these amazing Guimarães Jazz Festival posters with you while in quarantine is a small blessing. We can now look fondly back at the pre-pandemic performing arts scene—how good we had it!
It was 2009 in Guimarães, Portugal and design studio Martino & Jaña created a memorable poster campaign that really hit the mark with regard to integrating typography and artist illustration. The result was a visually stimulating brand that demanded attention on busy, urban streets. The designers did a masterful job flowing and wrapping sinuous text around jazz artists in the heat of improvisation all the while keeping legibility, information hierarchy and festival promotion a priority.
On the eve of the first virtual International Jazz Day, it’s comforting to look back at a more liberated time when festival attendance didn’t evoke so much consternation. With any luck we’ll be back to those carefree days sooner than later.
Donate to JazzSherpa
Help support this jazz blog and make a small donation to help purchase material to review.
$5.00
Please visit the JazzSherpa Bodega for great looking jazz merch and support jazz wherever you are.
Jazz Remembered
By Carl Glatzel, Editor
Back in 2000 I was given the opportunity to head up art direction for Deer Mountain Records, a Houston-based startup jazz label. Houston’s own Paul English was artistic director and principal performer and I was freelancing full time, trying to find as many jazz-related design gigs as possible. These were great days, when live jazz performances were still a cause for celebration at the historic Warwick Hotel in Houston’s Museum District — a sophisticated venue for equally-sophisticated music. Jazz aficionados and novices alike would gather and hang on every note of Paul’s masterful improvisations and Brennan Nase’s intimate double bass solos.
Most projects kept me in Houston, chasing down Paul and his collective group of artists with my friend and photographer, Ignacio Gonzalez, at different local venues.
After sitting down with Paul and his business partners I knew what was expected of me and soon my days (and nights) would be consumed with branding Deer Mountain Records. Most projects kept me in Houston, chasing down Paul and his collective group of artists with my friend and photographer, Ignacio Gonzalez, at different local venues. Other projects would take me on the road. One such project took me down the Texas Gulf Coast to direct a photo shoot at the Corpus Christi Jazz Festival, where chance would have me meet two saxophone greats.
Donate to JazzSherpa
Help support this jazz blog and make a small donation to help purchase material to review.
$5.00
Paul was booked to play at the festival with his group, but he also planned on cutting some live material with Dave Liebman and Ed Calle at a hole-in-the-wall studio nearby. Liebman and Calle were performing at the festival with their own traveling bands. My wife and I were tasked with offering a ride to Ed Calle to and from the festival, giving us a chance to talk about music and life on the road with a giant on the international jazz scene. Once at the studio I finally met Dave Liebman, a true living legend and a gentleman. Being a longtime fan and having listened to Liebman grace Miles Davis’ electric recordings, among others, I felt as if I already knew him. Being in that studio was a rare chance to witness what it takes to cut a world-class jazz performance — a chance to see virtuosos with amazing chops warm up, get loose and get to know each other musically. Incredible blowing like I’ve never witnessed before — Liebman, Calle and Houston’s Dennis Dotson on trumpet. Dennis, who held his own magnificently, stole the show with jaw-dropping solos. Bright, brassy and note-perfect passages immediately eliciting comparisons to Hubbard’s finer moments by everybody in the engineering booth. And as we worked around performers and studio equipment to achieve each perfectly-framed shot, Ignacio and I couldn’t help but smile with the knowledge of how special this all was.
Being in that studio was a rare chance to witness what it takes to cut a world-class jazz performance — a chance to see virtuosos with amazing chops warm up, get loose and get to know each other musically.
The night was capped off with a brisk walk down the street and a late dinner at a local dive, offering up even more conversation, laughter and camaraderie. And photos throughout all of this, capturing and preserving great memories for one art director’s all-too-quick brush with greatness.
All photography by Ignacio Gonzalez.
Please visit the JazzSherpa Bodega for great looking jazz merch and support jazz wherever you are.
JazzSherpa 