I have spent a lot of time compiling album covers from releases listed in my discographies and those I recall being my very first LPs acquired when I began collecting jazz recordings as a teenager. At this point, there are 1679 covers available for viewing. Many of these are of great historical significance such as the 1950s 10-inch and 12-inch LPs from labels like Blue Note, EmArcy, Prestige, Bethlehem, Clef, Norgran and Verve as well as issues from the major labels including Columbia, Decca, Mercury, RCA Victor and their subsidiaries. I have also included some foreign issues and CD replicas when a quality scan of the original LP could not be found.
There are some rare examples such as a promo version of Gigi Gryce’s Reminiscin’ LP (Mercury; 1961) where the image of him playing his alto sax has been reversed.
Since some of my subjects lived into the CD era, you will find covers from issues in that format that have no LP equivalent. I have also chosen to include box set reissue covers of historical material such as those from the Mosaic and Uptown labels.
At the outset, I had considered incorporating the cover art into the discographies themselves but decided that a separate display allowed a more through and undistracted appreciation of these often iconic items.
As you browse the various pages of covers found here, I’m sure you will encounter, with nostalgia, some old friends.