From Blue Note:

John Patton, often known as Big John Patton, was one of Blue Note’s busiest soul-jazz organists during the golden age of the Hammond B-3s. Between 1963 and 1970 Patton cooked up 11 albums’ worth of material as a leader and sat in with a dizzying procession of skilled improvisers, and his best work has since been compared with that of tragically short-lived innovator Larry Young. Patton also enjoyed a long overdue comeback during the ’90s when he collaborated with saxophonist and composer John Zorn.

The cover of his album Accent on the Blues from 1969 was designed by Bob Venosa. He made early use of Papirtis Pink Mouse, and specifically its contoured “C” style, in all-lowercase letters.

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Ahead of The Beatles’ White Album by a full decade, Somethin’ Else by Cannonball Adderley features only a plain black background, allowing the typography to take center stage. All text is set in all-caps Franklin Gothic extra-condensed, with the album title and catalog number in white, artist name in yellow, and side musicians in blue.

As is typical with Blue Note Records releases of this era, the back cover uses mostly Bodoni, with Futura for the track titles, and some Vogue at the bottom.

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This 1959 album was originally titled simply Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, but quickly became known as Moanin’ after the first tune on the LP, and was later reissued with that title.

The original cover features the artist name and catalog number in a very narrow column of text, causing “Messengers” to be split over three lines, with a mix of condensed and extra-condensed Franklin Gothic.

The reissue instead uses a single line of Grotesque No. 9 that spans the width of the cover.

The back cover is mostly Bodoni, apart from the song titles, set in Futura Bold, and the bottommost line in Vogue.

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A couple of Fonts In Use debuts for the 2011 album from Trijntje Oosterhuis and The Clayton–Hamilton Jazz Orchestra.

The informal pen font FG Caroline is used for the title and “feat. The Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra”, and the slab serif Inlove Light used for the artist name and for many of the liner notes.

I thought the slanted N in TRIJNTJE was a special effect applied by the graphic designer, but it’s supplied in the font as the primary N, with an upright form as an alt. Inlove has a sprinkling of slanted forms that leads naturally to some very satisfying kerning combinations, which sadly we don’t get to see in this showing.

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Liner notes from Trijntje set in a big block of FG Caroline

Alternate cover used for the digipak release

The Rumproller is a 1966 album from trumpeter Lee Morgan (1938–1972) released on the Blue Note label. The album cover was designed by Reid Miles, and features the title and artist name in Franklin Gothic Extra Condensed, highly distorted to the point it’s reminiscent of funhouse mirror.

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Cover of the stereo release, 1973

The back cover features Bodoni. Track names and Leonard Feather’s liner notes are set in Futura.

Cookin’ with Blue Note at Montreux is a series of recordings of Blue Note artists playing live at the Montreux Convention Centre in Switzerland. The concerts took place on July 5, 1973, as part of a special label night at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Four of the albums came out in 1974, but Donald Byrd’s performance remained unreleased. It followed nearly fifty years later, in 2022, in the same design.

While the artist’s name is shown in caps from Impact, the series title is in Bronstein Bold, a bold script that appears to be one of the few originals by FotoStar/Facsimile Fonts. The Montreux Jazz Festival logo is custom lettering.

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Marlena Shaw [More info on Discogs]

Ronnie Foster [More info on Discogs]

Bobbi Humphrey [More info on Discogs]

Bobby Hutcherson [More info on Discogs]

The title on the back cover is set in Anzeigen-Grotesk / Neue Aurora IX, with credits and liner notes (by Jere Hausfater) in Helvetica.

Donald Byrd [More info on Discogs]

Hi Voltage is a 1968 album from American tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley (1930–1986), released on the Blue Note label.

The striking cover design is by Reid Miles, who set the album title and artist name in the bold weight of City on both the front and back cover. Cover photo by Francis Wolff.

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The back cover including Leonard Feather’s liner notes are set in Helvetica.

Empryean Isles is an acknowledged classic 1964 jazz album from Herbie Hancock, featuring the rest of the rhythm section from the famed second Miles Davis Quintet (Ron Carter and Tony Williams) and trumpeter Freddie Hubbard.

Cover design by Reid Miles, with photography by Francis Wolff and typography in all-caps Trade Gothic Condensed.

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Takin’ Off is jazz pianist Herbie Hancock’s debut album, released by Blue Note Records in 1962. It features one of his best known compositions, “Watermelon Man”, which he would later remake in a funk-fusion vein on his 1973 Headhunters album.

Cover design and photography by Reid Miles, who used Trade Gothic Extended for another album from that year, see Dexter Gordon’s Go.

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Roots & Herbs is an album by Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers, recorded in 1961 at the same sessions as The Freedom Rider, but not released until 1970, on the Blue Note label.

The typeface is Milton Glaser’s Baby Teeth, featuring an ampersand that’s different from the one in the original photostat design and also the one in Letraset’s adaptation. Chances are it’s the one included in Photo-Lettering’s version.

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Recorded in 1972 and released on the Blue Note label in 1973, Mr. Jones is an album by jazz drummer Elvin Jones. Lloyd Ziff designed the album and Philip Hays drew the illustration. Art direction by Mike Salisbury. The typography uses Poor Richard, in a single size.

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Two justified lines of tightly spaced Baby Teeth on Frank Gauna’s cover for Now Hear This, an album recorded by Duke Pearson in 1968 and released in the following year on Blue Note Records. The art is by Don Brodeur.

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Released in 2017, The Source is Tony Allen’s debut full-length album for Blue Note Records, following the 4-track EP A Tribute to Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.

The cover was designed by Rebecca Meek, with photography by Bernard Benant. The fat unicase font is Matrona, a winner in TDC’s 2010 Typeface Design competition. Hubert Jocham describes his design as “a very very very bold headline”. He comments on the background:

When letterpress started with the Gutenberg bible, the typeface was like a texture. Before humanism type did not really need to be legible. The letters were rather drawn in an ornamental way. It filled a space. My idea for Matrona was to create a similar structure. I wanted it to be very bold and still as legible as possible. The result was a headline typeface that can fill almost all the space. You can even fill it with a picture. Or you create an ornament with contents.

Matrona comes in three optical sizes, with slightly less delicate counters and notches for the smaller styles. In some regards, like the hefty weight and the common height of uppercase and lowercase glyphs, it reminds me of Jeremy Tankard’s Shire Types. While Matrona is a biform face, i.e. with two distinct forms at least for some letters, the Shire Types are unicase: The five different yet related members all have a single form for each letter. Matrona maximizes the reduction of the white, without becoming blocky like Fit or Assai.

In memory of Tony Allen who died in Paris on 30 April 2020, aged 79.

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Back cover of the vinyl release. Playfair Display is paired with Geogrotesque.

The back cover of the CD release allows a better look at the typography.

Deep Groove! is a best-of compliation by American jazz saxophonist, composer, bandleader, producer Julian “Cannonball” Adderley (1928–1975). It was released by Blue Note Records in 1994. Graham Marsh used Motter Ombra in all caps for the cover typography.

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Identity of the 2019 edition of Blue Note Festival in Paris, France, featuring artists like Gregory Porter, Thomas Dutronc, Madeleine Peyroux, or Ben l’Oncle Soul.

Commissioned by Universal Music France and designed by Fakepaper, the identity uses ABC Favorit Std Extended by Dinamo.

A Swingin' Affair is a 1962 jazz album by saxophonist Dexter Gordon, recorded two days after his best-known album Go!, and with the same line-up. The all-caps typography uses partially slanted Onyx, with secondary information in Trade Gothic.

Before he started designing record covers, Tom Hannan first moved to New York to attend the Hans Hofmann School on a painting scholarship. His album art often includes painterly backgrounds. Even the type is treated like a brush on this cover. Hannan worked mostly for Bethlehem Records and Prestige Records, but this is one of his few covers for Blue Note.

Visual identity of Blue Note Festival’s 2017 edition, held in Paris and organised by Universal Music France. in Paris. On both flyer and poster, the lineup is set in Berlingske Serif. The poster uses Antique Olive for the main information, which is set in Public Notice JNL on the flyer.