Favorite Blue Note cover

[BruceH]

although my all time favorite is "Cool Struttin'."

Right on!

[paul secor]

Ornette at the Golden Circle Vol. 1

[BruceH]

I very much agree with sundog about the cover to A Swingin' Affair----and how about the cover to Our Man In Paris for alltime coolness? Am I right Ed?

[ajf67]

Good list, with lots of cool covers. I'd nominate Lou Donaldson's "Gravy Train" for inclusion on any future list. I also love the cool shot of Sonny Rollins on "Vol. Two" with the Blue photo and a bunch of the Big John Patton covers. B)

[davef]

Into Somethin' from here... must say, however, that my all-time favorite Blue Note cover would be Let 'Em Roll by Big John Patton.

[ASNL77]

The useless search function is a good way to rediscover dead threads.

Horace Parlan: Headin' south is my favourite with Larry Young : Unity

[Guy Berger]

No way I can vote on this one! If Cool Struttin' or Out to Lunch was there...

These are two of my favorites as well. I also like the cover on Larry Young's Unity.

Guy

[Bluesman]

My favourite is to the left. From the list I like Into Something and Good Gracious.

[B. Clugston]

Out to Lunch and Unity are favourites. Also True Blue, Song for My Father, The Turnaround, Groovin at Small's Paradise and Dorham's Round About Midnight. Someone should start another poll. I went for Back to the Chicken Shack on this one. Love that photo!

[T.D.]

I like The Magnificent Thad Jones (BN 1527) ... It's something about evoking the period.

I voted for The Shack here, but The Magnificent Thad Jones is also my favorite.

[GA Russell]

The street signs at the corner of Grant and Green in San Francisco.

[Face of the Bass]

I like Dexter Gordon's Dexter Calling and Kenny Dorham's Whistle Stop.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Hey - it says I've already voted in this poll. OK, but I put my check in against "Easy walker" and no one has voted for that!

WTF?

MG

(I think the sleeve is so elegant and matches the music perfectly. And I love the album!

Dunno what my fave BN sleeve of all would be - too many.)

[Allan Songer]

Reid Miles was a very good customer of mine--I used to see him 3-4 times a month all through the 80's right up until he died. I have about 20 of his Blue Note covers on my office wall and he used to stick his head in and say "nice artwork you got there." He was usually 3 sheets to the wind by noon and used to come barreling up to the loading dock in his '61 Lincoln ragtop and park the damn thing there blocking one of our three loading bays while he came in and shopped. NO amount of yelling at him would keep him from doing this!

He told me that he got paid "a hundred bucks a cover" for the Blue Note work and that he ususally spent anywhere from 30 minutes to a couple of hours on the design. He said that Lion and Wolff had no money and that's all they could pay, but that they were really great guys to work with.

Talent is an asset.

Edited September 2, 2006 by Allan Songer

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Reid Miles was a very good customer of mine--I used to see him 3-4 times a month all through the 80's right up until he died. I have about 20 of his Blue Note covers on my office wall and he used to stick his head in and say "nice artwork you got there." He was usually 3 sheets to the wind by noon and used to come barreling up to the loading dock in his '61 Lincoln ragtop and park the damn thing there blocking one of our three loading bays while he came in and shopped. NO amount of yelling at him would keep him from doing this!

He told me that he got paid "a hundred bucks a cover" for the Blue Note work and that he ususally spent anywhere from 30 minutes to a couple of hours on the design. He said that Lion and Wolff had no money and that's all they could pay, but that they were really great guys to work with.

Talent is an asset.

I am REALLY DISAPPOINTED that he didn't have a Jag. Perhaps he just fantasised having a Jag.

Thanks for sharing that with us, Allan.

Just think of Reid knocking "Shoutin'" out in half an hour... Wonderful. Did they give him a tape or test, so he could hear what type of music he was covering?

MG

[Allan Songer]

I am REALLY DISAPPOINTED that he didn't have a Jag. Perhaps he just fantasised having a Jag.

Thanks for sharing that with us, Allan.

Just think of Reid knocking "Shoutin'" out in half an hour... Wonderful. Did they give him a tape or test, so he could hear what type of music he was covering?

MG

Reid had LOTS of cars! He would somtimes drive a '47 MG TC and I know he had a '41 Continental V-12 convertible. Not sure about a Jaguar, but it wouldn't surprise me if he had one!

Reid wasn't a big time jazz listener, really. He used to BLAST Opera in his car, I know that for a fact!

Edited September 2, 2006 by Allan Songer

[Morganized]

Hey - it says I've already voted in this poll. OK, but I put my check in against "Easy walker" and no one has voted for that!

WTF?

MG

(I think the sleeve is so elegant and matches the music perfectly. And I love the album!

Dunno what my fave BN sleeve of all would be - too many.)

I voted for that one as well. Should show at least 2 votes.......I recently picked this one up, mainly for the art work. I was pleasantly surprised by the music actually. Very nice.

[sidewinder]

I am REALLY DISAPPOINTED that he didn't have a Jag. Perhaps he just fantasised having a Jag.

Thanks for sharing that with us, Allan.

Just think of Reid knocking "Shoutin'" out in half an hour... Wonderful. Did they give him a tape or test, so he could hear what type of music he was covering?

MG

Reid had LOTS of cars! He would somtimes drive a '47 MG TC and I know he had a '41 Continental V-12 convertible. Not sure about a Jaguar, but it wouldn't surprise me if he had one!

Reid wasn't a big time jazz listener, really. He used to BLAST Opera in his car, I know that for a fact!

Amazing story Allan - thanks for sharing. Did you get him to sign some covers?

One of the Marsh/Callingham books has a picture of Reid Miles with his collection of vintage cars, all on show in a huge great gallery that was his 'home base'.

I'm not suprised to hear that he had opera music blaring out. Read somewhere (in one of those books I think) that he got rid of all of his 'courtesy' copies of the Blue Note LPs just after being given them as he wasn't a fan of the music.

30 minutes to 2 hrs per design eh? Amazing !

Edited September 2, 2006 by sidewinder

[JSngry]

30 minutes to 2 hrs per design eh? Amazing !

Not really, at least in one sense. The elements are all pretty simple. The most complex things are the more trippier photos, most of which, iirc, are ones that he himself took.

What is amazing, imo, is the clarity of vision behind those things. He had 2 or 3 basic "styles" of design on those covers, and he worked seemingly infinite variations on them. Guess it shows that if you have the vision fully-formed, getting it out ain't no biggie, especially when it involves working w/a minimum of materials.

What I'm still wondering is how the hell he got from the minimalism of the BN covers to the hyperactivism of his later commercial work. The cover to The Basement Tapes is a prime example. It's like doing 0-60 in -10 seconds.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

What I'm still wondering is how the hell he got from the minimalism of the BN covers to the hyperactivism of his later commercial work. The cover to The Basement Tapes is a prime example. It's like doing 0-60 in -10 seconds.

Never seen any of his other work. Whose album is "The basement tapes"?

MG

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Hey - it says I've already voted in this poll. OK, but I put my check in against "Easy walker" and no one has voted for that!

WTF?

MG

(I think the sleeve is so elegant and matches the music perfectly. And I love the album!

Dunno what my fave BN sleeve of all would be - too many.)

I voted for that one as well. Should show at least 2 votes.......I recently picked this one up, mainly for the art work. I was pleasantly surprised by the music actually. Very nice.

Wow! Wonderful! A prejudiced poll!

MG

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Hey - it says I've already voted in this poll. OK, but I put my check in against "Easy walker" and no one has voted for that!

WTF?

MG

(I think the sleeve is so elegant and matches the music perfectly. And I love the album!

Dunno what my fave BN sleeve of all would be - too many.)

I voted for that one as well. Should show at least 2 votes.......I recently picked this one up, mainly for the art work. I was pleasantly surprised by the music actually. Very nice.

Wow! Wonderful! A prejudiced poll!

MG

I see it's now got either your vote or mine registered, Morganised.

MG

[JSngry]

Never seen any of his other work. Whose album is "The basement tapes"?

Bob Dylan & The Band

Movin' & Groovin' it ain't...

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Thanks Jim. Did Reid do the lettering?

Seriously, from the repro here, I'd guess it's partly a photo and partly painted. Is it all Reid's work?

MG

[JSngry]

He receives credit for photography. Bob Cato is listes as "design consultant".

I met a commercial photographer about 20 years ago, and I asked him if he had ever heard of Reid Miles. Of course he had, but he was completely unaware of the BN work. When I showed him some prime examples, he was amazed that it was Miles' work. Apparently, Reid Miles went on to great renown in the commercial photography industry for his "crowd scene" work, of which this cover is but one example.

Who knew?