The early jazz album covers of Andy Warhol

 

Before he became just about the most important person in the world in the 1960s, Andy Warhol made a living as a graphic designer. He did a whole slew of album covers and, as is well known, a good many book jackets as well. Often he enlisted his mother to write the scrawled text, as we saw in this delightful mock cookbook from 1959, her handwriting was his secret weapon until he made the silk screen his signature medium of choice.

For most of these albums, he was responsible for the drawing if not necessarily the layout. In the case of the Monk album above, we know it’s his mother’s handwriting and he may not have done the layout, so it’s unclear exactly how much credit he should get, but then again, that was more or less his method at The Factory!

Count Basie, s/t, 1955

Kenny Burrell, Volume 2, 1956

Kenny Burrell, Blue Lights, 1958

Artie Shaw and His Orchestra, Both Feet in the Groove, 1956

Frank Lovejoy, Night Beat, 1949

Jay Jay Johnson, Kai Winding, and Bennie Green, Trombone by Three, 1956

Moondog, The Story of Moondog, 1957

The Joe Newman Octet, I’m Still Swinging, 1956

Cool Gabriels, s/t, 1956

Johnny Griffin, The Congregation, 1957

Various artists, Progressive Piano, 1952

For an exhaustive look at Warhol’s cover art go to this site http://rateyourmusic.com/list/rockdoc/andy_warhols_record_cover_art/1/