During my visit to the archives of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, two years ago, I noticed a familiar name on the purchase order for the cover art of the 1956 jazz album Cool Gabriels on RCA’s Groove label: A.R Lehman. This means that […]
All posts filed under: Fifties
Reid Miles & (just a dash of) Julia Warhola: MONK, Prestige Records 7053 (1958)
The last cover to be discussed in this series of posts about Reid Miles and Andy Warhol, is that of the Thelonious Monk album on the Prestige label, with serial number PRLP 7053. The Reid Miles cover was issued in 1958. There is a lot […]
Reid Miles & Andy Warhol’s Mother: The Story Of Moondog, Prestige Records 7099 (1957)
In 1957 Reid Miles did the design for The Story Of Moondog, an album by the blind avant garde musician and street poet and performer Louis Hardin a.k.a. Moondog, who in New York was also known as the “Viking Of 6th Avenue” because of his […]
Reid Miles & Andy Warhol: Trombone by Three, Pres 16-4 (1957)
Reid Miles’ work for Blue Note was not exclusive. Because of his good understanding with label owners Lion and Wolff, he was also allowed to do design jobs for other labels. Miles designed some great covers for Prestige Records, among which three with Andy Warhol. […]
Reid Miles & Andy Warhol: Kenny Burrell, Blue Lights, Blue Note 1596 & 1597, Volume 1 and 2 (1958)
The third and last Miles-Warhol project for Blue Note Records is my favorite: Blue Lights, again by Kenny Burrell, and released in two separate volumes with a different color background. In the Fifties, records with a what now is familiarily called “cheese cake” photo on […]
Reid Miles & Andy Warhol: Johnny Griffin, The Congregation, Blue Note 1580 (1958)
The next Warhol-Miles cooperation for Blue Note records follows the same path as the Kenny Burrell album: in 1956 there was an album called Introducing Johnny Griffin, with a cover designed by Reid Miles and a photo of Griffin by Francis Wolff. So for the […]
Reid Miles & Andy Warhol: Kenny Burrell – Blue Note 1543 (1956-1957)
This is the first of six short posts I will write about the great album covers that art director Reid Miles and Andy Warhol created together between 1956 and 1958: three covers for Blue Note Records and three for Prestige Records. The first one for […]
Reid Miles and Warhol: the shoe, the nudes, the letterhead
“For me work is an upper, a great high. I have no personal life. I don’t want it.” Those could have easily been Andy Warhol’s words, but they were not. Its’ a quote from an interview with art director Reid Miles in People Magazine, in […]
Melodic Magic and Strauss Waltzes: the purchase orders
The two EP’s on Camden records with a cover illustrated by Andy Warhol take me on a nostalgic trip, 13, 14 years back in time. Earlier I wrote a blogpost about how fortunate I was to discover the then unknown Strauss Waltzes EP (Camden CAE 158) […]
Mozart, 4 Divertimenti: Andy Warhol & S. Neil Fujita part 2
In my previous post I described how the link between designer S. Neil Fujita as art director for CBS records and Andy Warhol was established, by means of an invoice for an illustration for the Chopin: Nocturnes album. Another album with Warhol cover that we […]
Epic Records: Andy Warhol & S. Neil Fujita
A few months ago I was contacted by Scott Lindberg (dcmnts) and Aaron Cohen (www.projectobjectstore.com), who are both lovers of graphic design and record cover art. Scott wrote he was doing research on the American graphic designer S. Neil Fujita, world famous for his colorful […]
Porgy and Bess: proof it’s a Warhol
Three albums in the RCA Victor Bluebird Classics series have been a topic of discussion among Warhol cover collectors for a long time. Especially the illustration of a village scene and playing children on Porgy And Bess had its doubters and non-believers. The discussion can now come […]
