Chick Corea – Tones For Joan’s Bones album art
Front cover.
Tones for Joan’s Bones is the debut solo album by jazz pianist Chick Corea, who previously was a member of Miles Davis’s band. It was recorded in late 1966, but not released before April 1968 by Atlantic Records on their then new sublabel Vortex.
The cover was designed by Haig Adishian, featuring a powerful illustration by Dick Luppi that depicts the musician’s face in semi-profile, entangled in a multicolored floral pattern. The title is shown in amorphous capitals with a contour, set on a curve. They are taken from one of the variants of Photo-Lettering’s Staudel Xenotype J. First shown in Art Nouveau Xenotypes 1895–1905 from 1962 as Xenotype 3481, the caps of the solid basic style are virtually identical to Roberta III by Facsimile Fonts. I haven’t yet found out which of the two came first. Chances are they both go back to a historical source. Photo-Lettering had a number of other Staudels, some of which were more or less directly based on alphabets by Chicago-based lettering artist J.M. Bergling, see Staudel Xenotype K and Staudel Xenotype N.
![The contoured variants of Staudel Xenotype, as shown in Photo-Lettering’s Alphabet Thesaurus Vol. 3 from 1971. The style that’s listed here as Staudle [sic] Contour H-V is shown in the One Line Manual of Styles (also from 1971) as Staudel Contour V. Staudel (or Staudle) Gemutlich is filled with a decorative pattern. It comes in two variants; A (horizontally striped top half, solid bottom half) and B (reversed).](https://fiu-original.b-cdn.net/fontsinuse.com/use-images/133/133573/133573.jpeg?filename=Staudel-Xenotype-in-Photo-Lettering-Alphabet-Thesaurus-Vol.%C2%A03-p377.jpg)
The contoured variants of Staudel Xenotype, as shown in Photo-Lettering’s Alphabet Thesaurus Vol. 3 from 1971. The style that’s listed here as Staudle [sic] Contour H-V is shown in the One Line Manual of Styles (also from 1971) as Staudel Contour V. Staudel (or Staudle) Gemutlich is filled with a decorative pattern. It comes in two variants; A (horizontally striped top half, solid bottom half) and B (reversed).
According to a 2006 interview, it was in 1968 – when this album was released – that Corea “came into contact with L. Ron Hubbard’s material in 1968 with Dianetics”. Since the early 1970s, he’s been an active Scientology member (and even recorded music composed by the cult’s founder to promote one of his book) – a fact that tainted his perception as artist. Chick Corea died on February 9, 2021, at age 79.
Back cover with liner notes by Nat Hentoff. The title here is set in the much soberer News Gothic Bold.
1 Comment on “Chick Corea – Tones For Joan’s Bones album art”
See Adishian’s cover for Mongo Santamaria’s Feelin’ Alright album from 1970 for an example of Staudel Gemutlich.
And see Graham Marsh’s cover design for a 1990s best-of compilation by Cannonball Adderley for a recycling of Luppi’s illustration.