Mick Hartley

Swedish vinyl specialists Birka Jazz have put together an extensive collection of jazz album covers (via):

We have now opened our archives to show the images of the rare and beautiful albums we have offered over the years.

It is intended as a tribute to the labels and to the artists, designers and photographers, who created the album covers.

American labels dominate of course, including those iconic Blue Note covers:

 plus Atlantic, Prestige, Impulse…

European labels feature as well: the England section goes from Esquire to Incus, with names like Tubby Hayes, Stan Tracey, Evan Parker.

Useful notes too. I never knew Andy Warhol, as a commercial artist in the '50s, designed some jazz covers (notes to the Bluenote 1500 series): somehow jazz and Andy Warhol live in different New York universes.

Some of the artists stand out…like the prolific David Stone Martin.