Birka Jazz in 1998, the local street record shop at Birkagatan in Stockholm. The following year we started our webshop on the internet.





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AMERICAN LABELS

COLUMBIA RECORDS
The pioneers of album cover design

CLEF, NORGRAN, VERVE (1)
David Stone Martin

CLEF, NORGRAN, VERVE (2)
The photographic covers

BLUE NOTE  10" LPs
Searching for a modern jazz identity

BLUE NOTE  1500 series
Defining the hard bop style

BLUE NOTE  4000 series
Masterpieces of Reid Miles

PRESTIGE RECORDS
Images of East Coast jazz

RIVERSIDE RECORDS
Street cred with Thelonious Monk

PACIFIC JAZZ
Moods of Chet and Claxton

CONTEMPORARY
Cool West Coast, great Sound

SAVOY RECORDS
Masterworks by Charlie Parker

DIAL RECORDS
Small label, big Bird sound

ATLANTIC RECORDS
Bold and striking albums

EMARCY RECORDS
The classic drummer logo label

BETHLEHEM RECORDS
The beautiful design of Burt Goldblatt

DEBUT RECORDS
Artist-operated jazz label with Mingus & Roach

CANDID RECORDS
Legendary, early 1960s LPs

ESP-DISK
Free jazz and silk screened covers

IMPULSE RECORDS
Edgy, experimental, deluxe

RCA VICTOR
The high spirit of Jim Flora

VARIOUS US labels (1)
ABC-Paramount, Aladdin, Argo, Capitol, Coral, Dawn, Decca,
and more

VARIOUS US labels (2)
Epic, Fantasy, HiFi, Imperial, Jazzland, Jazz West, Jubilee, Mercury, Mode, and more

VARIOUS US labels (3)
Roost, Signal, Storyville, Tampa, Transition, United Artists, Vee Jay, and more

EUROPEAN LABELS

SWEDEN (1)
The EP era and Metronome Records in 1950s

SWEDEN (2)
The LPs in the 1950s, and Swedish jazz abroad

SWEDEN (3)
Changing times in the 1960s

SWEDEN (4)
New energy to Swedish jazz in the 1970s

DENMARK
Montmartre, Debut Records and the heydays in Danish jazz

NORWAY
Krog and Garbarek, greats in Norwegian jazz

FINLAND
Plenty of merged styles in Finnish jazz

FRANCE
Americans in Paris, force in French jazz

ENGLAND
Esquire and Tempo, classic labels in British jazz

GERMANY
Jazz labels with strong identity

ITALY
Rare Italian jazz covers

HOLLAND
From Diamonds to ICP in
Dutch jazz

POLAND
Unique series of Polish jazz on Muza

OTHER COUNTRIES
Jazz labels around the world

SPECIAL FEATURES

CHARLIE PARKER on Vinyl

JOHN COLTRANE on Vinyl

LARS GULLIN on Vinyl

---

         

Columbia Records

The pioneers
of record album cover design

COLUMBIA pioneered in many fields of the recording business. Also in the field of album cover design. In 1939 the company employed Alex Steinweiss as art director. He becomes the man who invented the album cover.

Columbia is the oldest surviving trademark in the record business, dating back to 1880s. The label's first jazz recording were made by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band in 1917.

Columbia was an American company until mid 1920s, when it was purchased by its own former subsidiary in England, the English Columbia. Later, in the 1930s, the English Columbia formed EMI and was forced to sell its American operations back to the US. In the late 1930s the American Columbia Records was sold to CBS, Columbia Broadcasting System.

It is the albums from the American Columbia that are displayed on this page. Albums from Columbia in England, and other countries, will be find on the pages for European labels.

During the 1950s, Columbia´s US recordings were distributed in Europe on the Philips label. From the early 1960s the US Columbia albums were labelled as CBS recordings when sold in Europe.

ALEX STEINWEISS created the first illustrated cover for an album of 78 rpm records. Before that, the albums were sold in plain brown sleeves, with a cardboard outer jacket and just the name of the artist stamped on the front. They looked like tombstones, Alex Steinweiss said. Below his very first cover, a Rodgers & Hart collection from 1939.

   

The practice of illustrated albums was soon adapted by the other big American labels. Steinweiss continued to work for Columbia during the 1940s and created many covers for 78 rpm albums.

In 1948 Steinweiss also developed the packaging for the new 33 r.p.m. records that Columbia was developing. His design of thin cardboard, covered with printed paper, soon become the industry standard.

Columbia's first LP in 1948 was "The Voice of Frank Sinatra" which had the catalog number CL 6001. It seems to be the first pop/jazz LP ever (picture below).


   


Surprisingly this first LP does not have a pictorial cover, in spite of the fact that such a cover already exists. The LP was a reissue of a 78 album from 1946, which had a nice color cover (see large picture to the right).

Alex Steinweiss left Columbia in the early 1950s. But he continued to be much in demand as an album cover designer, especially for classic music. He worked during the 1950s for labels such as Decca, London and Everest. Later he concentrated on graphics for posters, magazine covers and packaging design.

Steinweiss was from beginning inspired by the European poster artists, such as Cassandre, Jean Carlu and Paul Colin. His stylized images, with playful typography and eye-catching illustrations, have all the qualities of the great posters from the 1930s. Later he was attracted by the work of abstract artists such as Klee, Kandinsky and Mondrian.

         

JIM FLORA was recruited by Alex Steinweiss to Columbia in 1942 to handle the label's jazz covers. Unlike Steinweiss, a classical-music buff, Jim Flora was a great jazz fan.

All through the 1940s he devised brightly-coloured covers with caricatural and even naive graphics. His illustrations were influenced by the European modern painters as well as pre-Colombian art, given it a comic book twist.

He left the label in 1950. In 1954 he was hired by Bob Jones who was a former colleague from Columbia, now art director at RCA Victor. Flora came to produce some of his most oustanding works during the two years he was working for RCA Victor.

   
   Alex Steinweiss at Columbia in 1939

   
   Jim Flora early 1940s



         



NEIL FUJITA became one of the post-Steinweiss designers at Columbia who developed the company´s album look. He was recruited by Rudolph de Harek, who was Columbia´s art director in the beginning of 1950s.

Both de Harek and Fujita preferred a style which featured photography before illustrations. From mid 1950s Fujita was the art director. He was inspired of labels like Blue Note and Prestige and added a new, more hard-edged, attitude to Columbia.

He created many covers by himself, but also employed freelance designers and photographer such as Burt Goldblatt, William Claxton, Richard Avedon and Ben Shahn.


         

New ideas at Columbia in the 1960s

BOB CATO took over from Neil Fujita in 1960 as art director at Columbia. He was a ground-breaking designer who helped turn the album cover into an important form of contemporary art in the 1960s.

He was born in 1923. In the 1940s he first studied under the Bahaus designer Lazlo Moholu-Nagy and then with the designer Alexey Brodovitch, who was the art director of Harper's Bazaar. Cato then became his assistant at the magazine.

He stayed at Columbia from 1960 to 1970. His paintings, collages and photos illustrated a variety of musical styles, from Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis to Leonard Bernstein, and he created or superwised some of the most memorable rock music covers of the decade.

In addition to his own creatings Bob Cato also employed some of the era's most influential painters, designers and photographers, including Andy Warhol, Robert Rauchenberg, Robert Crumb and Mati Klarwein.

JOHN BERG was appointed as Bob Cato's assistent at Columbia in 1961. He took over as art director in 1965 when Cato was promoted to vice president of the creative department. John Berg's career at Columbia ran on until 1985.

Together with Bob Cato he changed the scene for the art of album covers. He created numerous of famous rock and jazz album covers for artists such as Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Bruce Springsten, Santana, Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk.

MATI KLARWEIN is connected with some of the most iconic Columbia album images of the 1960s and 1970s. His paintings on the covers for Miles Davis and Santana visualised theirs new mind-expanding music, and probably the covers today are even more recognizable than the music itself.

Otherwise Klarweins name and work remains unknown to many. But he was a prolific artist, painting many portraits and a wide variety of landscapes, as well as surreal and visionary art.

He was born in pre-war Germany and escaped with his Jewish parents to Palestine (Israel). In the 1950s he moved to Paris and has then been living, working and travelling around the world.

---

See also

Jim Flora at RCA Victor



LINKS

Alex Steinweiss
Robert Berman Gallery

Interview  JIM FLORA
Angelynnn Grant

JIM FLORA
jimflora.com

The Life and Art of MATI KLARWEIN

Interview  NEIL FUJITA
AIGA.org

Interview  JOHN BERG
AIGA.org

---

RESOURCES
used in preparing this website. See also the links on each page.


Åke Abrahamsson a.o.: Den gyllene cirkeln (Stockholm, Prisma 2002)

Jan Bruér: Guldår & krisår (Stockholm, Svenskt Visarkiv 2007)

Jan Bruér and Bengt Nyquist: Svensk Jazzhistoria, Vol. 6-10 (Caprice CD, booklets)

Jan Bruér and Lars Westin: Jazz - musik, människor, miljöer (Stockholm 1995)

Irwin Chusid: The Mischievous Art of Jim Flora (Seattle, Fantagraphics 2004)

William Claxton: Jazz West Coast (Hollywood, Richard Bock Prod. 1955)

Richard Cook: Blue Note Records (London, Secker & Warburg 2001)

Cool Scandinavians: Danish jazz cover artwork 1950-1970 (Copenhagen, Re-Public 2007)

Håkan Lagher å Lasse Ermalm: Metronome Records: De legendariska åren (Stockholm, Premium 2007)

Michael Cuscuna a.o.: Blue Note Jazz Photography of Francis Wolff (New York, Universe 2000)

Manek Daver: David Stone Martin Jazz Graphics (Tokyo, Graphic-sha 1991)

Manek Daver: Jazz Album Covers. The Rare and the Beautiful (Tokyo 1994)

Nick de Ville: Album style and image in sleeve design (London, Mitchell Beazley 2003)

Klaus-Gotthard Fischer: Jazzin´ The Black Forest. The complete guide to Saba/MPS (Berlin, Crippled 1999)

Walter Hanlon: 1950s Jazz in London and Paris (London, Tempus 2008)

Hultin, Randi: Born Under The Sign of Jazz (London, Sanctuary 1998)

Jackson, Jeffrey H.; Making Jazz French (Durham, Duke University Press 2003)

Jazz Grafico, Exihition catalogue (Institut Valencia d´Art Modern 1999)

Ashley Kahn: The House That Trane Built, The Story of Impulse Records (London, Granta Books 2006)

Orrin Keepnews: The View from Within (New York, Oxford University Press 1988)

Rick Kennedy and Randy McNutt: Little Labels - Big Sound (Indiana University Press 1999)

Barry Kernfeld (editor): The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz (London, Macmillan 1994)

Erik Kjellberg: Svensk jazzhistoria (Stockholm, Norstedt 1985)

Eric Kohler: In the groove. Vintage record graphics 1940-1960 (San Francisco, Chronicle 1999)

Edward M. Komora: The Dial Recordings of Charlie Parker (Westport, Greenwood Press 1998)

Steinar Kristiansen, Bjørn Stendahl, Per Husby: Jazz in Norway (Norskt Jazz Arkiv / Norwegian Jazz Base

Graham Marsh, Glyn Callingham and Felix Cromey: The Cover Art of Blue Note (London, Collins & Brown 1991)

Graham Marsh and Glyn Callingham: California Cool (London, Collins & Brown 1992)

Graham Marsh and Glyn Callingham: East Coasting (London, Collins & Brown 1993)

Naoki Mukoda: Jazzical Moods. Artwork of Excellent Jazz Labels (Tokyo, Bijutsu Shuppan-Sha 1993)

Joaquim Paulo: Jazz Covers (Köln, Taschen 2008)

Jennifer McKnight-Trontz & Alex Steinweiss: For the Record, The life and work of Alex Steinweiss (New York, Princeton 2000)

Uwe Weiler: The Debut Label (Norderstedt, Germany 1994)

 John Kirby and his Orchestra   Label: Columbia   78 rpm album early 1940s
 Design: Alex Steinweiss

 Columbia  Records

 Teddy Wilson - Billie Holiday   Label: Columbia   78 rpm album early 1940s
 Design: Alex Steinweiss
 
 

 Various Artists: Boogie Woogie   Label: Columbia   78 rpm album 1940s 
Design: Alex Steinweiss
 
 

 Louis Armstrong´s Hot Five   Label: Columbia   78 rpm album 1940s
 Design: Jim Flora
 
 

 Bix Beiderbecke: Bix and Tram   Label: Columbia   78 rpm album 1940s
 Design: Jim Flora
 
 

 Kid Ory: New Orleans Jazz   Label: Columbia   78 rpm album 1940s
 Design: Jim Flora
 
 

 Gene Krupa and his Orchestra   Label: Columbia   78 rpm album 1940s
 Design: Jim Flora
 
 

 The Voice of Frank Sinatra   Label: Columbia   78 rpm album 1946
 
 

 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert   Label: Columbia SL 160   12" LP box 1950
 
 

 Lee Wiley: Night in Manhattan   Label: Columbia SL 6169   10" LP 1951
 
 

 The Louis Armstrong Story, vol. 2   Label: Columbia ML 4384   12" LP 1951
 Design: Jim Amos
 
 

 Mildred Bailey   Label: Columbia CL 2553   10" LP c.1951
 
 

 Benny Goodman Combos   Label: Columbia GL 500   12" LP 1951
 Design: Rudolph de Harek
 
 

 The Bessie Smith Story, vol. 1   Label: Columbia GL 503   12" LP 1951
 Design: Stanley / Monogram
 
 

 Bunk Johnson: The Last Testament   Label: Columbia GL 520   12" LP 1952
 Photo: Bud Weil
 
 

 Rosemary Clooney: While we´re Young   Label: Columbia 6297   10" LP 1954
 
 

 Chet Baker & Strings   Label: Columbia CL 549   12" LP 1954
 Photo: William Claxton
 
 

 Dave Brubeck: Jazz Goes To College   Label: Columbia CL 566   12" LP 1954
 
 

 Dave Brubeck: Brubeck Time   Label: Columbia CL 622   12" LP 1955
 
 

 Chicago Style Jazz   Label: Columbia CL 632 / Philips 7061 (Europe)   12" LP 1955
 Illustration: Ben Shahn   Design: Neil Fujita
 
 

 After Hours with Sarah Vaughan   Label: Columbia 660   12" LP 1955
 Design: Neil Fujita   Photo: Hugh Bell
 
 

 Dave Brubeck: Red Hot and Cool   Label: Columbia 699   12" LP 1955
 Photo: Richard Avedon
 
 

 Buck Clayton: Jumpin´ at the Woodside   Label: Columbia 701   12" LP 1955
 Photo: Bill Hughes
 
 

 Louis Armstrong: Satch plays Fats   Label: Columbia 708   12" LP 1955
 Photo: Burt Owen
 
 

 Eddie Condon: Bixieland   Label: Columbia 719   12" LP 1955   Photo: Hugh Bell
 
 

 J.J. Johnson - K. Winding: Trombone for Two   Label: Columbia 742   12" LP 1956
 
 

 Frank Sinatra: The Voice   Label: Columbia 743   12" LP 1956
 
 

 Teddy Wilson: Mr. Wilson   Label: Columbia 748   12" LP 1956   Photo: Bob Adelman
 
 

 Count Basie Classics   Label: Columbia 754   12" LP 1951   Photo: Bernard Cole
 
 

 Benny Goodman: The Vintage Goodman   Label: Columbia 821   12" LP 1956
 Photo: Glenna Hopewell
 
 

 Eddie Condon´s Treasury of Jazz   Label: Columbia 881   12" LP 1956
 Photo: Ralph A. Brooks
 
 

 Johnson, J.J. - Winding, Kai: Jay & Kai + 6   Label: Columbia 892   12" LP 1956
 Illustration: Arnold Roth
 
 

 The Jazz Messengers   Label: Columbia 897   12" LP 1956
 Design: Neil Fujita   Photo: Don Hunstein
 
 

 Duke Ellington at Newport   Label: Columbia 934   12" LP 1956   Photo: Arnold Newman
 
 

 J.J. Johnson: J is for Jazz   Label: Columbia 935   12" LP 1956   Photo: Dan Wynn
 
 

 Miles Davis: Round About Midnight   Label: Columbia 949   12" LP 1956
 Photo: Marvin Koner
 
 

 Duke Ellington: A Drum Is A Woman   Label: Columbia 951   12" LP 1956
 
 

 The Jazz Odyssey of James Rushing Esq.   Label: Columbia 963   12" LP 1956
 Illustration: Tom Allen   Design: Neil Fujita
 
 

 Donald Byrd - Gigi Gryce: Jazz Lab   Label: Columbia 998   12" LP 1957
 Photo: Paul Himmel
 
 

 Art Blakey: Drum Suite   Label: Columbia 1002   12" LP 1957
 
 

 Duke Ellington: Such Sweet Thunder   Label: Columbia 1033   12" LP 1957
 
 

 Art Blakey: Hadbop   Label: Columbia 1040   12" LP 1957
 
 

 Miles Davis: Miles Ahead   Label: Columbia 1041   12" LP 1957
 
 

 Duke Ellington Indigos   Label: Columbia 1085   12" LP 1958
 Photo: Roy De Carava
 
 

 Little Jimmy Rushing and the Big Brass   Label: Columbia 1152   12" LP 1958
 Illustration: Tom Allen   Design: Neil Fujita
 
 

 J.J. Johnson: J.J. In Person   Label: Columbia 1161   10" LP 1958
 
 

 Miles Davis: Milestones   Label: Columbia 1193   12" LP 1958   Photo: Dennis Stock
 
 

 Michel Legrand: Legrand Jazz   Label: Columbia 1250   12" LP 1958
 
 

 Miles Davis: Jazz Track   Label: Columbia 1268   12" LP 1958
 
 

 Gerry Mulligan: What Is There To Say?   Label: Columbia 1307   12" LP 1959
 Photo: Burt Goldblatt
 
 

 Miles Davis: Kind of Blue   Label: Columbia 1355   12" LP 1959   Photo: Jay Maisel
 
 

 Duke Ellington: Anatomy of a Murder   Label: Columbia 1360   12" LP 1959
 Design: Saul Bass
 
 

 Charles Mingus: Ah Um   Label: Columbia 1370   12" LP 1959
 Design and painting: Neil Fujita
 
 

 Joe Wilder: The Pretty Sound   Label: Columbia 1372   12" LP 1959
 
 

 Dave Brubeck: Time Out   Label: Columbia 1397   12" LP 1959
 Design and illustration: Neil Fujita
 
 

 Charles Mingus: Mingus Dynasty   Label: Columbia 1440   12" LP 1959
 
 

 Miles Davis: Someday My Prince Will Come   Label: Columbia CL 1656   12" LP 1961
 
 

 Miles Davis at the Blackhawk, vol. 1   Label: Columbia CL 1669   12" LP 1961
 
 

 Jimmy Giuffre: Free Fall   Label: Columbia CL 1964   12" LP 1963
 Photo: Henry Parker   Painting: Juanita Giuffre
 
 

 Thelonious Monk: Monk   Label: Columbia CS 9091   12" LP 1964
 Design: Bob Cato   Photo: W. Eugene Smith
 
 

 Thelonious Monk: Underground   Label: Columbia CS 9632   12" LP 1968
 Design: John Berg   Photo: Steve Horn / Norman Griner
 
 

 Thelonious Monk: Monk´s Blues   Label: Columbia 9806   12" LP 1969
 Painting: Paul Davis
 
 

 Miles Davis: Bitches Brew   Label: Columbia GP26   12" LP 1970
 Painting: Mati Klarwein :  Design: John Berg
 
 

 Santana: Abraxas   Label: Columbia 30130   12" LP 1970   Painting: Mati Klarwein
 
 

 Miles Davis: Live-Evil   Label: Columbia 30954   12" LP 1971
 Painting: Mati Klarwein   Design: John Berg