blp 1509

In the 1950s, the independent music label Blue Note began issuing modern jazz albums as 12-inch LPs. Unlike 78-rpm discs packaged in brown envelopes, 10- and 12-inch long-playing records required proper covers. That is how the era of sleeve art started, and Reid Miles was one of the pioneers who perfected the format.

Miles’ first record was Milt Jackson and the Thelonious Monk Quintet (also known as BLP 1509). Over the next decade, Miles created a distinctive style for hard bop records, using tinted black-and-white photographs, sans-serif fonts (sometimes printed by letterpress) and a limited palette that, except for black and white, often consisted of a single color. Miles’ major influence came from all the usual suspects: the Bauhaus and the Swiss.

i think typography in the early ‘50s was in a renaissance period. it happened especially on album covers because they were not so restrictive as advertising. —reid miles

Cover by Reid Miles for Art Taylor—A.T.'s Delight

Art Taylor—A.T.'s Delight, 1960.

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.

 

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