06 June 2008

Friday Album Cover: A Night in Tunisia

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers
A Night in Tunisia

Note: I know I have been depending a bit too heavily on the Blue Note catalogue for album covers lately, so this will be the final Blue Note title for awhile.

Blue Note was responsible for a number of iconic album covers during the 1950s and 1960s, and while many remember certain albums for their photography or artwork, some albums relied solely on typography. Like other classic Blue Note albums Somethin' Else or In 'N Out, A Night in Tunisia features a simple cover consisting of the band name and album title. I always liked these covers for their understatement. With a group like Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Blue Note did not need to put much on the cover to grab someone's attention at a record shop. Even so, covers like this stick out, and reflect a certain aspect of each album. In this case, the cover's vaguely African color scheme matches Art Blakey's drumming style, in which he synthesized various traditions of African drumming on his drumkit. Besides Lee Morgan's raging solo on the title track (which is quite possibly the best solo on "A Night in Tunisia" ever recorded), this album cover is something that always comes to my mind when I think of this album. No small feat for a simple text design, indeed.

1 comment:

Lance said...

The thing I love about Blue Note is that what you see is what you get - great cover and great music and sometimes the sleevenotes even tell you about the disc. That's what I miss about LPs I mean is anyone's eyesight good enough to read a CD booklet end to end?
Great site.
You might care to look in on mine 'Bebop Spoken Here' www.lance-bebopspokenhere.blogspot.com. It's based around jazz in north-east England and has over 1000 photos.
Love for you to drop by.
Cheers
Lance

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