The Miles Davis Quintet – Miles album art
This curious sleeve doesn’t fit in with the rest of the mid-1950s cool jazz aesthetic. Duotone photography was commonly used in the genre, but that’s where the familiarity ends. The lime green color (later issues were blue); the large, brushy title, set dead center; and the bleak scene of arthritic trees along a nondescript canal – it’s all a bit mysterious. It gives off similar vibes to Marcus Keef’s spooky cover for Black Sabbath. The only sense I can make of the image choice is that Miles Davis’ quintet recorded this session in the fall (November 16, 1955).
Haymaker Cartoon from Photo-Lettering’s One Line Manual of Styles, 1971
The typeface is Haymaker Cartoon, an extrabold sign painter’s or showcard writer’s “casual” that appears in Photo-Lettering’s 1965 catalog, but must have been available a decade earlier to be used here.
While the back cover (set almost entirely in Vogue) doesn’t include attribution, Discogs credits the design to Gil Mellé, a musician and painter who created a handful of 1950s covers for Blue Note and Prestige featuring dynamic abstract art. While I love Mellé’s work, this minimalist oddball stands out, and that charms me.
Thanks to Gary Hornseth for bringing this gem to my attention via the lovely Jazz Tome website!
2 Comments on “The Miles Davis Quintet – Miles album art”
I can confirm that Haymaker Cartoon was already shown in PLINC’s 1960 catalog – but not yet in the one from 1950.
“The New Miles Davis Quintet” looks like it could be Tempo Heavy. At least the M and Q suggest as much. Like Vogue, Tempo came with various alternates, but I haven’t seen such a Futura-style S yet.
Thanks for catching. The S may be from a different font!