Kinda Blue Note

June 20, 2010 9:59 PM

Vintage Vanguard is a Japanese web site featuring the cover art for every Blue Note album ever released. Other labels are featured as well.
posted by dobbs (18 comments total)

Wow! Wow! A treasure trove! Thanks, dobbs!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:18 PM on June 20, 2010

I love these kinds of things, thanks!
posted by paisley henosis at 10:47 PM on June 20, 2010

Awesome!


The back of the album (or inside art) is at a higher resolution than the cover... Wish these were all high(er) res!

posted by el io at 11:04 PM on June 20, 2010

What a coincidence! I was just watching Matt Mullenweg's recent WordCamp SF talk where he based every slide on a Blue Note album cover.
posted by girlhacker at 1:32 AM on June 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

The cover of Hank Mobley's Workout is one of my favorite things ever. (The contents also rank pretty highly.)

How did people in the olden days wear their pants this high yet not look even slightly dorky?

One more: The Exciting Gene Krupa.
posted by No-sword at 2:00 AM on June 21, 2010

Back in the day, flipping through a peach crate of albums in a dorm room of someone you just met. Or a party. You find anything Blue Note, you hang around a while. This person has something to say.
posted by hal9k at 3:38 AM on June 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

These made jazz seem cool ... impossibly cool. But where to go from here? The busy baroque of the psychedelic era was the reaction.
posted by Faze at 3:45 AM on June 21, 2010

This is so awesome. There is such a great match between these iconic covers and the music they housed.
posted by OmieWise at 4:55 AM on June 21, 2010

This jazz thing is really useful.
posted by a non e mouse at 5:38 AM on June 21, 2010

'Good Gracious!'
posted by box at 5:43 AM on June 21, 2010

I was not ready for this.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 6:01 AM on June 21, 2010

Wonderful.
posted by sciencegeek at 6:10 AM on June 21, 2010

Question about Blue Note typography:

Can anyone tell what the fonts are on the cover of this album and this one? Especially the skinny sans serif one used to list the musicians?
posted by Pastabagel at 6:25 AM on June 21, 2010

Terrific, thanks!
posted by carter at 6:27 AM on June 21, 2010

This is a good day for jazz on MeFi—thanks, dobbs!
posted by languagehat at 8:02 AM on June 21, 2010

i think news gothic and news gothic condensed.
posted by bonsai forest at 9:30 AM on June 21, 2010

Great stuff, dobbs. I was always wishing that someone somewhere would put all these iconic LP covers all in one place. And here they are. I'd suspect many will favorite this post!
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 10:56 AM on June 21, 2010

These fascinating album covers were what initially drew me into exploring jazz as a teenager. Spending hours pilfering my parents record collection was one of my favorite past times. Great to see all the different artistic styles and how they progressed over the years.
posted by haunted by Leonard Cohen at 11:40 AM on June 21, 2010