Mysterious Jazz Graphics - Jutta Hipp?

[Zoot39]

Many years ago, a client who wasn't particularly well informed about jazz gave me a series of pen and ink drawings of various jazz figures. At the time, he told me that they were created by a devoted jazz fan cum artist who frequented the Vanguard. He didn't have much more information than that.

The provenance has always puzzled me. I can't find similar artwork anywhere on the web. There's a surrealistic, somewhat psychedelic cast to the artwork. This suggests to me the possibility that they may have been created in the late 50s or early 60s, when acid was everywhere.(Warning - some of the images are by today's standards racist. I provide them here only to give the reader a view of the imagery and perhaps a lead on the artist.)

I've posted them to private blogs I belong to. Same result - even though heavily populated by knowledgeable jazz fans, no-one recognizes the work.

Given the reference to the Vanguard, I inquired there, and they were quite responsive. According to the Gordon family, the artist was Jutta Hipp, who of course was educated as a graphic artist in addition to her piano work. In a way, that deepened the mystery. If you examine what little Hipp artwork is available online, or in the Cool box set, it's completely dissimilar to what I have. I tried to probe a little further, but with the same response - it was Jutta Hipp. 

That led me to post it here. You can find a few examples of the set, which contains 25-30 separate images, at https://sites.google.com/view/jazzimages. You can enlarge the images simply by reopening in a new tab. If anyone knows more about where these came from, I'd welcome the information. And, apologies for the lower quality images - if anyone would like something a bit better, please let me know.

[Teasing the Korean]

Thanks for sharing.  I would buy repros of a couple of these.

[Daniel A]

25 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:

I would buy repros of a couple of these.

Mee too. 

[Teasing the Korean]

3 minutes ago, Daniel A said:

Mee too. 

I will outbid you.  

[Daniel A]

Just now, Teasing the Korean said:

I will outbid you.  

Ha! 

[Onxidlib]

21 hours ago, Zoot39 said:

Many years ago, a client who wasn't particularly well informed about jazz gave me a series of pen and ink drawings of various jazz figures. At the time, he told me that they were created by a devoted jazz fan cum artist who frequented the Vanguard. He didn't have much more information than that.

The provenance has always puzzled me. I can't find similar artwork anywhere on the web. There's a surrealistic, somewhat psychedelic cast to the artwork. This suggests to me the possibility that they may have been created in the late 50s or early 60s, when acid was everywhere.(Warning - some of the images are by today's standards racist. I provide them here only to give the reader a view of the imagery and perhaps a lead on the artist.)

I've posted them to private blogs I belong to. Same result - even though heavily populated by knowledgeable jazz fans, no-one recognizes the work.

Given the reference to the Vanguard, I inquired there, and they were quite responsive. According to the Gordon family, the artist was Jutta Hipp, who of course was educated as a graphic artist in addition to her piano work. In a way, that deepened the mystery. If you examine what little Hipp artwork is available online, or in the Cool box set, it's completely dissimilar to what I have. I tried to probe a little further, but with the same response - it was Jutta Hipp. 

That led me to post it here. You can find a few examples of the set, which contains 25-30 separate images, at https://sites.google.com/view/jazzimages. You can enlarge the images simply by reopening in a new tab. If anyone knows more about where these came from, I'd welcome the information. And, apologies for the lower quality images - if anyone would like something a bit better, please let me know.

 

The artist of these pictures is definitely not Jutta Hipp but a German graphic designer, painter and film maker named Tony Munzlinger (*1934). The picture refering to Monk was used already for the British Band Spectrum (with a.o. Kenny Wheeler and Bobby Wellins). And there is a Woody Hermann compilation on Verve with another picture by this artist. These pictures are from his 1965 book titled "Jazz". Take a look at some of his pictures here.

Edited December 11, 2021 by Onxidlib

[Zoot39]

Thanks Onxidlib - mystery solved. No-one else was able to ID them. I'll pass this on to other interested parties.