The Jackie McLean Quintet album art

Jackie McLean was born on this day in 1931. The debut album by the jazz alto saxophonist from Harlem was also the first release by record label Ad Lib, in 1956, under the title Presenting… Jackie McLean, with a cover by Parboo Singh.

When Jubilee Records reissued it in 1957, they commissioned Sy Leichman with a new cover. The only common feature between the two designs is the cat, here depicted with wings (or is it an owl with cattail?), miscellaneous geometric forms, four pairs of hands playing various instruments, and a blissful smile that echoes the sickle moon.

The typographic lockup is composed from the lightest weight of Peignot (Deberny & Peignot, 1937), with a superscript C.

[More info on Discogs]

Seymour “Sy” Leichman was two years younger than Jackie McLean: he was born in Brooklyn in 1933. In 1954, he graduated from Cooper Union (see his portrait in The Cable, the school’s student annual). Within a few years and together with photographer Charles Varon (an assistant of Richard Avedon), he accounted for about 100 record covers, according to a 1959 article in the Gettysburg Times. Leichman served as art director at KGA Sales Promotion Agency [Art Direction] and in 1961, he was with Ehrlich, Neuwirth & Sobo. [Art Direction] He co-founded Spencer & Leichman, later known as The Leichman Group, and also art directed at Ted Bates.

After this “short stint in the world of commercial art, Leichman visited Spain, to study Goya, and Mexico, to study the art of Orozco and his contemporaries. Leichman began exhibiting his work in New York around 1970. Today his art is included in such major collections as the Butler Institute of American Art. Seymour Leichman also taught as an art educator at the Art Students League of New York. Perhaps his best known works, however, are his children’s books which he both authored and illustrated.” [RoGallery] Leichman died April 10th, 2016 in Manhattan. [obituary]