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Pete Rugolo – 10 Saxophones and 2 Basses album art

Contributed by Patrick Concannon on Oct 9th, 2023. Artwork published in .
Front cover
Source: archive.org License: All Rights Reserved.

Front cover

From Wikipedia:

10 Saxophones and 2 Basses is an album by composer, arranger and conductor Pete Rugolo featuring performances recorded in 1961 and first released on the Mercury label as part of its audiophile Perfect Presence Sound Series.

The album title and artist name are set in Safari, with numerals in an outline style similar to that seen in the 1960 Headliners specimen but possibly a custom alteration to add emphasis to the album title.

Additional type set in a Clarendon-like slab with flared stems in two widths, a compressed (“Perfect Present Sound”) and a wide one (“High Fidelity”), as well as Futura [rather: Twentieth Century] Condensed Italic, Copperplate Gothic, Century Expanded Italic, and Monotype Grotesque.

Designer unknown. Additional album information at Discogs.

Back cover with the liner notes set in pink in some sort of . The “Hi-FInformation” is in italic , while the annotatedt track list appears to combine  and more .
Source: archive.org License: All Rights Reserved.

Back cover with the liner notes set in pink in some sort of Baskerville. The “Hi-FInformation” is in italic Monotype Grotesque, while the annotatedt track list appears to combine News Gothic and more Century Expanded.

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12 Comments on “Pete Rugolo – 10 Saxophones and 2 Basses album art”

  1. This condensed width of this Clarendon variety also came up in a 1961 ad for Top Value Stamps, in two weights, with lowercase. I wonder whether it’s another Headliners release.

  2. “Futura Condensed Italic,” you say? I don’t think the original metal typeface had such a member. Twentieth Century did, however, include such styles.

  3. You’re not wrong! Adjusted.

  4. Thank you, Bryson. I somewhat rushed this one to post it with the other Safari uses.

    Muchas gracias, Javi! Nice find. Feel free to add it as another use.

  5. Feel free to add it as another use.

    Seconded! Comments are great for extra info related to the shown use. But for other unrelated uses of the same typeface, putting together a separate contribution is preferred.

  6. Also, Cut-Out (also made by The Headliners) kind of inspired or look similar to Safari a bit, but for some reason it looks familiar to me

  7. Here’s the samples for Cut-Out (Headliners)

  8. Josh Korwin pointed out that the wide slab for “HIGH FIDELITY” is similar to Filmotype Whitehall, although there are some small differences. It’s probably a similar face from another source. The earliest dated showing for Whitehall that I’ve found so far is from May 1973:

    Partial glyph set for Whitehall from a Typeshop catalog dated May 1973
  9. Well, I was kind of on the right track when I thought of Filmotype Whitehall, but it turns out these two mid-century Clarendons are both Lettering Inc. faces!

    “PERFECT PRESENCE SOUND” is set in a font numbered 1026·6, while “HIGH FIDELITY” is set in 1083·7. The former is an member of the Lettering Inc “Casual Clarendon” extended family (given its own fold-out brochure as “New Style Release 14”), while the latter is included in the “Square Serif: Clarendon” section of their gigantic 1950s specimen catalog, but does not seem to have its own specific family name beyond the number designation. Both faces seem to have been released around 1956. From what I can tell so far, neither appear in some earlier materials dated 1951.

    Lettering Inc “Casual Clarendon” family (New Style Release 14), recto
    Lettering Inc “Casual Clarendon” family (New Style Release 14), recto
    Lettering Inc “Casual Clarendon” family (New Style Release 14), verso
    Lettering Inc “Casual Clarendon” family (New Style Release 14), verso
    Lettering Inc “Casual Clarendon” family (New Style Release 14), detail showing 1026·6
    Detail of 1026·6
    Lettering Inc “Square Serif: Clarendon” page in their gigantic 1950s specimen catalog, including 1083·7
    Lettering Inc “Square Serif: Clarendon” page in their gigantic 1950s specimen catalog, including 1083·7
    Lettering Inc “Square Serif: Clarendon” page in their gigantic 1950s specimen catalog, including example uses of 1083·7
    Opposite page, including example uses of 1083·7

  10. Josh, that’s fantastic! Thanks for filling in the gaps, and for taking the time to make photos and compiling information. These two designs now have pages on Fonts In Use.

    Not quite settled yet on how we’ll handle Lettering Inc.’s number-only designations, especially in the absence of a trade name. Since 1026, 1046 and 1066 are basically width variants of the same design, I grouped them as Casual Clarendon. The numbers are stored as aliases, so that one can find the right typeface page in search even without the trade name. The wider design is Clarendon 1083 for now.

  11. Great find, Josh! Many thanks.

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