Sights & Sounds

When I was a kid, my cousin Robert, a music-head also, and probably where I got some of my love and all of my education for funk - the wall behind his stereo was filled with album covers. He was not the only cousin that had album cover covered walls, but his I remember and those had the most effect. Apparently it was a throwback to seventies pop-culture and design, I guess. There were all the Parliament/Funkadelic Record Covers, Tom Browne, George Duke, etc.

One of the first times a traditional old school jazz album cover caught my attention, is part of the reason I started listening to the music. Today, I don’t really remember what record it was but what I do remember is how much the cover-art struck me. And the more interesting the cover of artists I didn’t know, the more interested I was in wanting to hear their music.

In my first apartment, I was searching for decorating ideas. I hated the way it looked because it was so plain. I wanted artwork, but didn’t have the kind of ends it would take to purchase what I liked because, tuition, well you know…

One nite, I was listening to Wynton Marsalis’ “Soul Gestures in Southern Blue – ‘Thick in the South’” I believe, and I was looking at the album cover which contains a collage by Romare Bearden. Now, I mentioned my tuition woes earlier, so framed prints by Bearden where certainly out of the question – I mean if I wanted to eat. Somewhere between classic solos by Marsalis, I had a bright idea.

I took the covers of all 3 volumes and had them copied and enlarged at a printer. Then I went and purchased 3 frames and hung the covers, matted and framed on the wall above my sofa. Turned out GREAT!!

At that point, I really got a new appreciation for jazz album covers as art. So while hanging out online today, I decided to add some new artwork to the blog. Once every couple of weeks I’ll add a favorite cover to my page.

Enjoy!