Bunk Johnson with the Yerba Buena Jazz Band 1944 and with Doc Evans & His Band 1947 album art
Neville Brody’s FF Harlem (1993) is based on lettering he drew for the poster to A Rage in Harlem, a 1991 crime film set in the 1950s. With the counters that freely move around inside the letterforms, it can be read as a typographic translation of jazz music.
Harlem can here be seen in use on the cover of a CD with music by and an interview with Bunk Johnson (1889–1949), a jazz trumpeter from New Orleans. The album was compiled and produced by Johnny Parth for Document Records. The catalog number uses another design by Brody: it’s the Art Deco sans Insignia. (The label logo combines all-lowercase Futura Display and tracked caps from Futura Bold.)
Compare Harlem to Allen Abstract, an early 1960s typeface with similar characteristics – which was used for a jazz record cover.
