not a fan

Perhaps the most surprising fact about Reid Miles: he never really was a jazz fan. The designer always worked with notes from one of the label’s founders, Alfred Lion, which described the recording sessions and the character of the album.

Reid Miles never cared much about most of the records—he gave his copies of Blue Note albums to friends or traded them in secondhand record stores for classical music. Yet Miles’ graphics never failed to create a perfect package for any album and reflected the nature of jazz itself.

 

miles made the cover sound like it knew what lay in store for the listener. —felix cromey

Cover by Reid Miles for Art Blakey—Holiday for Skins record

Art Blakey—Holiday for Skins, 1959.

love-hate partnership

In Francis Wolff, a photographer and the other Blue Note owner, Reid Miles found a creative partner. He incorporated Wolff’s photos of the actual recording sessions in his covers, sometimes breaking them apart or stacking them. He took time to pick a typeface that resonated with the photos.

Reid Miles wasn’t the type of designer to limit himself to one or two fonts: he could go from Bodoni to News Gothic in a heartbeat. He also wasn’t greedy, and, once in a while, Miles wouldn’t touch a Wolff photo at all: He let it hold the stage. More often than not, however, the two artists would scream at each other and fight for every inch of cover.

 

Hank Mobley during his Soul Station session. Van Gelder Studio, New Jersey, 1960. © Francis Wolff / Blue Note Records.

Hank Mobley smiles holding a saxophone in his right arm during his Soul Station session
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