Vintage Album Covers

Private collections, public perceptions, and all that jazz.

We love jazz. We love album cover art. And we love vintage design. So we’re incredibly excited to bring you three fantastic collections of vintage jazz album and LP cover artwork.

VINTAGE VANGUARD

Vintage Vanguard may be an obscure Japanese website, but it’s brimming with remarkable cover designs of classic and rare Western jazz albums from the iconic Blue Note record label.

LP COVER LOVER

LP Cover Lover is both an archive of “the weird and wonderful world of record covers from the golden age of LPs” and a social bookmarking platform where anyone can submit a cover and everyone votes on the artwork. And while we wish the collection were browsable by rating, it’s still an absolute treat for musicologists and vintage design junkies alike.

BIRKA JAZZ ARCHIVE

In 1938, Columbia Records hired designer Alex Steinweiss who, at the age of 23, invented the concept of the album cover. Until then, records came in plain brown paper wrappers. Steinweiss’ idea was not only a pivotal moment in packaging history, but also a monumental shift in the relationship between music and art which, through the introduction of illustration, typography, vivid color and bold graphics, completely revolutionized the record industry.

Columbia Records’ Birka Jazz Archive houses rare and beautiful album covers by Steinweiss and other iconic designers from the golden age of jazz — some from private collections not previously available to the world. Sorted by label and country, the artwork also features fascinating historical notes about the labels, designers, photographers, and the music itself.

Explore this incredible cultural gem and, if you find yourself fascinated by the history and heritage of jazz, we recommend the Jazz + Culture course on iTunes U, a free podcast from Arizona State University. While it may lack the charm and production value of a TED talk, the course is a densely informative and captivating journey through the evolution of a cultural movement much grander than its musical foundation.

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Return of the Pooh

An epic comeback, an otter, and what your inner child has to do with philosophy.

In 1926, English author Alan Alexander Milne took a shelf of his son’s stuffed toys and turned them into some of the best-loved books ever published — the Winnie-the-Pooh series was born. Today, 81 years after Christoper Robin and the gang left the Hundred Acre Wood, they are back for a new adventure.

Out today, Return to the Hundred Acre Wood is among the most epic comebacks in English literature. Although Milne himself is long dead, the new book is written by David Benedictus — who also produced the audio adaptations of Winnie-the-Pooh, starring Dame Judi Dench — and meticulously based on Milne’s Pooh stories, with artwork by Mark Burgess in the style of original illustrator E. H. Shepard.

When speaking to The Guardian, Benedictus’ understandable anxiety about being lynched as a mere imitator comes charmingly packaged in his irreverent British humor:

What’s the worst thing that can happen, that I’ll be torn apart by wild journalists? Happened before and I survived. At worst everyone will hate me and I’ll just crawl under a bush and hide – I can live with that.

Burgess isn’t far behind in his nervousness about the drawings.

I approached this project with great trepidation. In my worst moments I wonder if Shepard would absolutely hate what I’m doing. That would be dreadful, I absolutely revere him.

But we have faith in the book — we see it as a brave and ambitious homage to one of humanity’s most iconic children’s classics.

Among other surprises, it introduces a new character — Lottie the Otter. And we’re excited to read about Pooh as he delights and tickles our brains with brand new gems from his brilliantly simple yet philosophical Tao, while remaining the very bear we all know and love.

For a tease of a taste, have an exclusive read [linked PDF] of the first chapter and get lost in Jim Dale’s whimsical grandfatherly voice as he reads the book’s Exposition:

Like the original Winnie-the-Pooh books, Return to the Hundred Acre Wood is as much an instant children’s classic as it is a clever and relevant meditation on our shared adult reality. So grab a copy and immerse yourself in that wondrous world that exists between your inner child and the grown-up philosopher in you.

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Illustartion Spotlight: Every Person In New York

Nachos, modern art, and how to put yourself on the cultural map.

Jason Polan is after every living person in New York — with a pencil and a sketchpad. His ambitious illustration project, Every Person In New York, is an effort do draw New Yorkers — all 8.3 million of them. Since March 23, 2008, he has been drawing people daily, and uploading the results to his blog.

He draws in subway stations, museums, restaurants, street corners — just about anywhere. And he doesn’t discriminate — from junk food lovers to junkies to celebrities, his sketches span the entire social spectrum.

To increase you own chances of getting drawn, he even invites you — yes, you — to email him with a public location you’ll be standing at for a duration of exactly two minutes.

From the standard subway sleeper, to the typical pack of art-admiring MoMA-goers, to Kirsten Durst walking down Grand Street, Every Person In New York is part art, part sociology, part fascinating slice of the cultural anthropology of the world’s most vibrant city.

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