Jazz

1950 · réf. 172631 — 1950-60s. Attractive collection of portraits of five jazz greats those of Paul Bley and John Lewis are vintage prints from the studio of Burt Goldblatt with wet stamps on verso. Goldblatt's New York Times obituary describes him as "a prolific designer of moody jazz LP album covers. In the early 1950s after the introduction of the LP the most progressive American cover designs were created for jazz albums and Mr. Goldblatt was among the pioneers in establishing the cool-jazz style. It encompassed black-and-white portraits and studio photographs inspired by film noir as well as gritty street scenes often abstractly overlaid with flat colours evoking a sense of urban night life". The study of Paul Bley shows him performing at the Newport Jazz Festival where Goldblatt was very much the house photographer publishing an illustrated history of the festival in 1977. Bley in the avant-garde of developments in the music "has produced vivid vital jazz couched in an advanced and challenging idiom" Cook & Morton. That of John Lewis - leader of the MJQ one of the most successful small groups in jazz - is an intimate close-up shot of him at the keyboard. Bill Evans is shown standing at the keyboard working through some changes with another musician perhaps drummer Kenny Clarke; the figure at Evans's elbow may be fellow-pianist Hank Jones. Similarly Tommy Flanagan sporting a flat cap and plaid shirt is going over material with drummer Roy Haynes. Flanagan is perhaps best known for his work accompanying Ella Fitzgerald and Tony Bennett emerging in the '70s and '80s as "a bebopper of gentlemanly distinction" Cook & Morton. The shot of Wynton Kelly is a delightful unguarded portrait showing him at the piano smiling and clearly in conversation sporting a hat with upturned brim and hip suit. Like Evans Kelly played on Miles Davis's timeless album Kind of Blue and is described by the All About Jazz website as "a superb accompanist loved by Miles Davis and Cannonball Adderley". Five original silver gelatin prints each 254 x 200 mm. Bley: identified on verso in black felt tip Burt Goldblatt wetstamp; Evans: identified on verso in pencil; Flanagan: identified on verso in pencil; Kelly: ghost of tape marks on verso; Lewis: identified on verso in blue ballpoint Burt Goldblatt wetstamp. Very slight blue ink smudging to the front of the image of Bley otherwise all in excellent condition. Richard Cook & Brian Morton The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings eighth ed. 2006. unknown