Bloggerhythms

Alex Steinweiss, who died July 17th at age 94, belongs in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for a non-musical invention. He is credited with inventing album cover art. In 1939 Columbia Records hired him to create advertising for their label. Upon arrival he noticed how drab the covers for most 78 RPM records were so his new job took on a different role. In an interview with Steinweiss after his retirement he said, "The way records were sold was ridiculous. The covers were brown, tan, or green paper. They were not attractive, and lacked sales appeal." Steinweiss seldom used pictures of the artists.  Instead he drew covers that corellated with the music inside. The designer retired in 1973 when he decided his work was too out of date for the rock and roll generation but not before producing, what he claims, were about 2,500 album covers. Steinweiss's first creation, pictured above, was for a 1939 collection of Rodgers and Hart songs. According to Wikipedia, his or...

The U. S. Mint's series honoring all fifty states on the reverse side of its quarters is nearing its end but not before Washington D.C. was finally represented. Today, the third installment of The Musical Art Gallery , Bloggerhythms' occasional series discussing music related artwork, features the new Duke Ellington quarter that hit America's streets near the end of January. Collectors may want to hold on to a few of these babies, instead of slipping them into parking meters, because the Ellington coin is one of the best of the series. This quarter is a pleasant surprise because most of the previously issued coins have celebrated something famously identified with each of the fifty states. You may have expected our nation's capital to feature The White House, The Capitol, The Smithsonian, or even one of the memorials on the reverse side. However, to their credit, the town decided to do something very different. City resident, Eleanor Holmes Norton, said, "With...

The CD, Myths & Fables by jazz singer-pianist Bett Butler, was reviewed here earlier this year. The painting that graces the cover of her disc is called "Strange Fruit" and it is named, of course, after the famous and luridly vivid Billie Holiday song about racism. The cover is a colorful depiction of the infamous lynchings of Holiday's and Butler's people from a not too distant bygone era. A cursory look at this modern painting may not immediately make its intentions clear. However, once you know the story behind Holiday's song, and you look more closely at this work by artist Courtney Reid , the full meaning of her effort becomes painfully apparent. "Strange Fruit" would even be more majestic gracing the cover of a full sized 33 1/3 RPM record jacket because in that format the cover would be suitable for framing. When CDs are gone for good paintings like "Strange Fruit" will have one less outlet for public exposure and a song like...