![]() ![]() The session shot is what you think of when you think of jazz photography: the musician in action, all spotlights and cigarette smoke and chiaroscuro. "After those first few golden years," said Claxton, "it seemed as though he was always on the run-usually away from the law, or else running to find a score." Claxton had begun photographing Baker in 1952 and was to make him a kind of personal project for the next five years. That's Freeman at the piano and Chet playing his horn behind him. Jazz people, you'll know most or all of them.Ĭhet Baker Quartet Featuring Russ Freeman, 1953. Not everyone will agree with my taste in either photography or music, but at minimum I'd say they're all worth a look and a listen even to non-jazz fans. So here's a modest taxonomy of the postwar jazz album cover photograph, with what I take to be a prime example of each type. But there was plenty of photography too, some of it famous, some all but forgotten. To be fair, a lot of the most memorable covers relied mainly or entirely on illustrations or typography. ![]() ![]() Even if you don't share the view that jazz reached its high-water mark in the couple decades following World War II, can there be much doubt that the art of the album cover did? Those big square sleeves offered the perfect showcase for mid-20th-century graphics and photography, and the best of them still stand as small masterpieces of design. ![]()
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