There is an unwritten rule in the community of Warhol covers collectors: one can never ever have enough copies and versions of Johnny Griffin’s excellent Blue Note album The Congregation. So, here we go again! I seemed somehow to have missed the 2011 release of […]
All posts tagged: jazz

Billie Holiday drawing part of ACT Art Collection
About a year ago I wrote a post about a jazz album by the Nils Landgren Funk Unit, on the German label ACT. The cover illustration was borrowed from a Warhol drawing I already mentioned a few years earlier, a cover design for an imaginary […]

Kenny Burrell and Andy Warhol: Tone Poet & Design Master
The re-issue of Kenny Burrell’s Blue Note 1543 album in the audiophile series Tone Poet finally got its release. At first it was planned for June, but boy, it was worth the wait. What a brilliant release this is, both in regards of music production […]

Funk Is My Religion: new record, old drawing
Funk Is My Religion is the title of an album by Swedish funk and jazztrombonist Nils Landgren, released with his band Funk Unit in July of 2021 on the German label ACT. The cover art is credited as “inspired by Andy Warhol (detail)”, but it […]

Reid Miles & Andy Warhol: Kenny Burrell – Blue Note 1543 (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 in 1957 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 […]

Brazilian Artie Shaw LP cover
It’s about time I start writing for this blog again, the first post in 2016. The reason for this gap in time is that I’ve been working on a city guide book about Budapest (Hungary), which was an intensive ride. Beautiful city, lots of things to do. Now […]

Warhol on 45: Artie Shaw – Both Feet In The Groove
For the release of Artie Shaw’s Both Feet In The Groove album on the 7 inch format, RCA used the same system as they did for I’m Still Swinging: a double EP with gatefold cover was issued, containing 8 out of 12 tracks (EPB-1201). A single 4-track record […]

Warhol on 45: Count Basie – Count Basie
In 1955 RCA Victor released a Count Basie album – without a title – that had a beautiful Warhol portrait of the Count on the cover. The complete album was also released on 7 inch, in a great triple gatefold cover (EPC-1112). In Europe the […]

Warhol on 45: Joe Newman – I’m Still Swinging
I’m starting a series of posts now about my single collection: Warhol on 45. First one in line is Joe Newman’s I’m Still Swinging. Warhol delivered a blotted line drawing, but whoever did the design has not been credited. Often you read that a difference […]

Some more Progressive Pianos
Let’s have a look at some great drawings for the Progressive Piano cover. As usual Warhol did a lot of different drafts for one singular project: with real piano keys or colored patches; with jacket & shirt sleeves or bare arms. After 10 years of […]

Happy 100, Lady Day!
The legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday was born on April 7th, 1915. So next week on Tuesday her 100th birthday will be celebrated. With of course a lot of new releases, among which one of my all time favourite albums: Lady In Satin. Looking very much forward to […]