Rather than an effect added after the photo was taken, the circle was part of a fence structure that Mobley was sitting behind. Reid Miles was fond of visual puns and here, in a bid to prove that a cool-looking Mobley – wearing shades and drawing on a cigarette – is no square, the designer encircles his face. Saxophonist Dolphy was dead by the time Out To Lunch! came out, a fact that lends the “will be back” sign a poignant irony. One of Blue Note’s most iconic covers shows how Miles can take a mundane, everyday photo (a cropped snap of a shop door) and, by dint of a subtle blue tint and framing it with bold typography, transform it into a memorable image. Byrd is dwarfed by his E-Type Jaguar, whose headlight is a prominent feature of a photo that is taken from an unusual angle and offers a visual metaphor that sums up the album’s title. This is one of the few Reid Miles covers where the photo (also taken by the designer) plays a bigger role than the graphic design. There’s a small blue-tinted picture of Gordon neatly boxed in a rectangular framework that is simple but tremendously effective. Never using many hues, Reid Miles often exploited the contrast between black and white in his designs, but here he uses orange and blue to add drama and emphasis to one of the best Blue Note album covers – and one of the first that many Blue Note fans think of. Listen to the Blue Note: The Finest In Jazz Since 1939 playlist right now. What can’t be disputed, however, is the superlative quality of Miles’ and Wolff’s work, which helped the humble album cover to transcend its functionality and be considered a work of art in its own right. If you disagree with some of the choices, you can use the comments section to tell us your contenders for the best Blue Note album covers. Ultimately, it all comes down to personal taste, and the following 20 artworks (not listed in order of merit) don’t represent a definitive list but rather reflect a subjective appraisal of their worth. Given how many wonderful artworks Miles produced in the 50s and 60s, choosing just 20 of the best Blue Note album covers is a difficult task. More importantly, they helped to change the way that jazz was marketed and presented, and, crucially, also altered how African-American musicians were perceived.
Miles’ designs, however, gave Blue Note’s covers an avant-garde edge that made them stand out in the record-store racks. Wolff was apparently dismayed at this, feeling that his work was being violated by the young designer. During his 11 years with Blue Note he produced an array of different designs that were frequently characterised by a striking juxtaposition of bold typography – often including exclamation marks – with tinted photographs that were sometimes cropped in an extreme way. While Blue Note’s co-founder Francis Wolff provided the photographs of the label’s musicians, it was Reid Miles, who joined the company in 1955, who came up with the eye-grabbing designs that now cause debate among fans over the best Blue Note album covers.
In its dedication to excellence in every aspect of record-making, the label’s packaging – consisting of an enticing front cover picture and obligatory sleevenotes on the back – undoubtedly matched the high quality of its music. I have to say, I think John’s playing is fantastic on this song–he often only sang backing vocals and maybe played some percussion on George’s songs, and sometimes didn’t play at all, but it’s an interesting example of his really adding significant contributions to a George song.When it came to jazz album covers, Blue Note was unequivocally the market leader in the 50s and 60s. I suppose it could also be the acoustic guitar, though again the tone is very different.
The idea that it could be a treated piano is interesting, but the tone is totally different from the rest of the piano, though I suppose he could have treated only some of the bass strings. It sounds like it’s in the same position in the mix as John’s slide guitar part, so I’m thinking that it’s John. I’m pretty sure the article is correct in saying that it’s not a bass guitar–there seems to be no record of a bass overdub, and that part is present even in the Glyn Johns mix, which was made long before they started overdubbing on some of the tracks. I’m interested in the debate about the ‘walking note’ part at the end of every verse.
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