The Impulse! label LP covers by Robert Flynn / Viceroy are among the best of a great era. Yet this 1966 sleeve for John Coltrane’s turbulent, single-track album Ascension doesn’t attempt to represent the sound of the music.
But all the elements in the design – the portrait, the typography, the use of colour and white space – express the idea of Coltrane’s work, always questioning and questing. The album cover communicates immediately that this is serious music. Not pop, not classical, not straight-ahead jazz, but something else.
Eye is available from all good design bookshops and online at the Eye shop. For a taste of the magazine, try Eye before you buy.
mos x coltrane x axelrod = yes lawd
this performance took place ten days before my birthday. saw variations of this at yoshi’s in oakland (as a birthday gift) with the fam and was blown away!!!