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John Coltrane Album Covers

Rabshakeh

By Rabshakeh
in Miscellaneous Music

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Niko Rising Star

Niko

Posted
Posted

A good one... I guess that if Coltrane would have said "this record is about spaghetti" and "this record is about rabbits" covers might have looked different... Instead, he said "this record is about myself, where I stand right now" and because that happened every few weeks, and because designers didn't listen to the music...

Rabshakeh Grand Master

Rabshakeh

Posted
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Posted
  On 9/25/2024 at 10:24 PM, JSngry said:

Do you mean the ones with all the shots from a C. Stewart shoot where the lighting makes it look like his jacket is purple?

If so, laziness, imo. Maybe they own them outright?

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Those are particularly bad. They somehow look so cheap and 80s. Even though they aren't.

But even the others are just basic. As Niko says, just the same photo over and over. Coltrane looking stolid, playing his horn, sweating. 

All the other records that Impulse! put out look great. Archie Shepp, Alice Coltrane, Marion Brown, Sun Ra, all have great covers. Whereas all Coltrane records are the same, barring maybe Interstellar Space, which has some clouds, and Ballads, which has a camera angle.

JSngry Grand Master

JSngry

Posted
Posted

So you are referring strictly to posthumous  impulse! covers then?

I didn't notice any real trend that way until Stellar Regions. And then, yeah, they got a bit....uninspired.

 

JSngry Grand Master

JSngry

Posted
Posted

Some of the CD packagings are uninspired. Like, the Japan thing had an infinitely more interesting cover as an LP. No idea why they did that...maybe in response to the Marsailian-ish fear of music like that, maybe they wanted it to look like something else.

LTcwNDIuanBlZw.jpeg

vs

MDUtNzcwNy5qcGVn.jpeg

  On 9/25/2024 at 10:56 PM, Rabshakeh said:

Nope. They’re pretty similar throughout. Not just Impulse! either.

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Hmmm....not sure I'd agree with that, at least not for original issues.

Coltrane was famous. He had a saleable visage. Was there ever a Beatles album without them on the cover? Or Sinatra?

And they weren't even saints!!!!! :g

JSngry Grand Master

JSngry

Posted
Posted

Oh, photos, yeah, probably. But why not? Again, he was famous (relative to the market).

But the actual designs themselves, I think the OGs are pretty varied, even within the impulse! "brand look". And even then, after the next regime came in...

61Ma6myZrbL.jpg

OC00NDQxLmpwZWc.jpeg

OTEtNjgyNi5qcGVn.jpeg

etc

 

mjazzg Grand Master

mjazzg

Posted
Posted
  On 9/25/2024 at 10:58 PM, JSngry said:

Coltrane was famous. He had a saleable visage. Was there ever a Beatles album without them on the cover? Or Sinatra?

And they weren't even saints!!!!! :g

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I'm going with this theory. Recognisable, high profile, why bother being imaginative 

clifford_thornton Veteran

clifford_thornton

Posted
Posted
  On 9/25/2024 at 10:58 PM, JSngry said:

Some of the CD packagings are uninspired. Like, the Japan thing had an infinitely more interesting cover as an LP. No idea why they did that...maybe in response to the Marsailian-ish fear of music like that, maybe they wanted it to look like something else.

LTcwNDIuanBlZw.jpeg

vs

MDUtNzcwNy5qcGVn.jpeg

Hmmm....not sure I'd agree with that, at least not for original issues.

Coltrane was famous. He had a saleable visage. Was there ever a Beatles album without them on the cover? Or Sinatra?

And they weren't even saints!!!!! :g

Expand  

Japanese original: 

Ny5qcGVn.jpeg

  On 9/25/2024 at 11:15 PM, JSngry said:

Oh, photos, yeah, probably. But why not? Again, he was famous (relative to the market).

But the actual designs themselves, I think the OGs are pretty varied, even within the impulse! "brand look". And even then, after the next regime came in...

 

OC00NDQxLmpwZWc.jpeg

etc

 

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Impulse pressing is a reissue. First came out on Coltrane Records:

NC0yMjE0LmpwZWc.jpeg

OTgtMjMzMC5qcGVn.jpeg

a few of the Atlantics and some of the early Prestige LPs did not have images of the artist, either, though he was arguably less of a household name at the time.

JSngry Grand Master

JSngry

Posted
Posted
  On 9/27/2024 at 6:35 PM, gvopedz said:

The "White album" comes with photos of the Beatles inside, but I would say the cover is entirely white without "them on the cover".

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More than compensated for by the inserts!

  On 9/27/2024 at 6:03 PM, clifford_thornton said:

Japanese original

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Is that an LP? Wow...

  On 9/27/2024 at 6:32 PM, jazzbo said:

The original Savoy material also did not feature photos of Coltrane. . . some interesting covers IMO.

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Because they were Wilbur Harden records? Or am I missing one?

sidewinder Mentor

sidewinder

Posted
Posted (edited)
  On 9/27/2024 at 6:03 PM, clifford_thornton said:

Japanese original: 

Ny5qcGVn.jpeg

Impulse pressing is a reissue. First came out on Coltrane Records:

NC0yMjE0LmpwZWc.jpeg

OTgtMjMzMC5qcGVn.jpeg

a few of the Atlantics and some of the early Prestige LPs did not have images of the artist, either, though he was arguably less of a household name at the time.

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I have a copy of that AU 4950 Cosmic Music on Coltrane Recording Corporation. Remarkably, it is still in near-mint nick.

There are photos, I recall, of Alice Coltrane's Dix Hills recording studio showing posters of that grey-pattern cover art on the walls.

Edited by sidewinder
jazzbo Grand Master

jazzbo

Posted
Posted (edited)
  On 9/27/2024 at 6:59 PM, JSngry said:

 

Because they were Wilbur Harden records? Or am I missing one?

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Two were not billed that way on the cover with Harden and Trane the first two names listed.

Edited by jazzbo
clifford_thornton Veteran

clifford_thornton

Posted
Posted
  On 9/27/2024 at 6:59 PM, JSngry said:

Is that an LP? Wow...

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yep, JP Impulse LP.

There's also Second Night in Tokyo, which was released a few years later, and is IMO even stronger:

ODgtNjIwMi5qcGVn.jpeg

It is too bad that the jam sessions with Japanese musicians were not recorded. I asked Fujioka-san and he confirmed no tapes were made.

  On 9/27/2024 at 7:10 PM, sidewinder said:

There are photos, I recall, of Alice Coltrane's Dix Hills recording studio showing posters of that grey-pattern cover art on the walls.

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Ah! I always wondered where they cribbed that pattern from.

I too have AU 4950 in NM condition.

sidewinder Mentor

sidewinder

Posted
Posted (edited)
  On 9/27/2024 at 7:39 PM, clifford_thornton said:

yep, JP Impulse LP.

There's also Second Night in Tokyo, which was released a few years later, and is IMO even stronger:

Ah! I always wondered where they cribbed that pattern from.

I too have AU 4950 in NM condition.

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The posters on the wall looked to be reproductions of the LP cover with some publicity blurb so not cribbed from there. If my recollection is right, the origin of the art is of some pattern sketches by John Coltrane himself.

My copy has an unusual play history. Prior to me acquiring it the story was that it was played once by original owner to transfer the content across to reel-to-reel tape, then stuck in a cupboard for a few decades !

Edited by sidewinder
JSngry Grand Master

JSngry

Posted
Posted

Most people who would have had the cover would have also had the record that went inside it.

I got it in the 70s on a Savoy 2-fer and the notes specified their origin.

Then again, I like to read all that stuff, labels and liners. I've been a geek like that.

jazzbo Grand Master

jazzbo

Posted
Posted (edited)

I bought them as Savoy LPs and considered them Coltrane records because that was the reason I bought them.

 

OKAY! YOU DA MAN! Have a nice weekend.

Edited by jazzbo

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