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This is the fifth part of a series on the relationship between jazz and comic books. Go to Part 1 , Part 2, Part 3 or Part 4.

In this segment, we will discuss common aspects between jazz and comic books from the point of view of the context in which both languages were created.

As we saw previously, the new media launched by Alex Steinweiss, the designed covers of jazz albums created a high demand for illustrators, who were often also jazz musicians and used stage experimentation for their graphic work to forge the visual identity of the genre. However, these languages have even stronger and broader connections.

Néstor García Canclini, Argentinian Art History professor living in Mexico in his work Hybrid Cultures – Strategies for Entering and Exiting Modernity refers to comic art as an “impure genre”. According to the author, comic art is endowed with the same capacity as graffiti to transition between image and word, between the erudite and the popular, bringing together characteristics of artisanal and mass production.

Cultural manifestations generated at the points of intersection between the cult and the popular, which do not fit into what Social Sciences call “urban culture” are, according to Canclini, hybrid languages. However, the “marginal language” tag profoundly marked the history of comics.Still seen today as a type of “minor literature”, easy to read, made for illiterate people, comic narratives faced (and still face) a lot of suspicion and the same can be said about jazz.

Phillip Kennedy Johnson writes in his article How Comics Are Becoming Jazz:

Both industries [Comic books and Jazz] struggled with censorship early on, both art forms revolve around a small creative team, and both genres have developed distinct sub-genres, each with its own cult following. The similarities are many and significant, but one of the most striking is the reliance of both art forms on “The Standard” and on the artist/creator

According to Johnson, jazz standards have always been an important vehicle to disseminate jazz. He makes a very interesting analogy about what a “standard” means for jazz and comic books:

Go to a college masterclass by a jazz musician, and often you’ll hear them perform “All The Things You Are,” or “Autumn Leaves,” or “My Funny Valentine,” or some other antique show tune that every jazz student knows. These songs were popular before our parents were born. What inspires jazz musicians to play the same tired old songs generation after generation? A simple, well-constructed theme or chord progression with plenty of room for creative interpretation.

Go to any Artist Alley at any comic convention in the world. You’ll find comics professionals drawing and selling sketches of beloved superheroes, most of which are older than the artists themselves. After all these years, what makes the characters of the comic pantheon so appealing to writers, artists and readers? A simple but compelling theme with plenty of room for creative interpretation.

The standard therefore combines novelty with familiarity. They are the classics and literature and cinema are full of works that cross generations, always raising interest and (sometimes heated) debates. It might be difficult to think of jazz stars dressed as comic book heroes and villains (with the honorable exception of the diva Eartha Kitt, equally iconic in the role of Catwoman), but we can say that Johnson’s observations also apply if we think about how the great figures of jazz are portrayed in comic books.

Whether in fictional graphic novels inspired by the universe of jazz, or in the biographies of musicians and singers, the universe of the genre has a series of distinctive elements, repeated to exhaustion and which, as we will see in the next part of this series, created around the genre a aura that is both cool and dramatic.

Be seeing you!

G.F.

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In the fourth segment of our series of articles on the relationship between jazz and comic books we will discuss the visual design of the genre.Go to Part 1 , Part 2 or Part 3.

Columbia Records was one of the pioneers in creating designs for LP covers and part of its history has Alex Steinweiss as the main character. In the late 1930s, at the age of twenty-two, Steinweiss changed the status of vinyl (until then packaged in cheap paper) by introducing a novelty that would change the world of the music industry: designed covers.

Over three decades Steinweiss developed a style of cover design that remained in dialogue with the viewer. The new media available created a high demand for illustrators, who were often also jazz musicians.

Initially, the inspiration for the album covers came from the European posters from the 1930s. Art-déco was spreading throughout Paris and the work of artists such as A.M. Cassandre, Jean Carlu and Paul Colin brought international attention to modernist art.

Jean-Marie Mouron, better known as A.M. Cassandre was born in Ukraine in 1901, but he moved to France at a young age with his family. Inspired by Cubism and Surrealism, in the 1950s he produced album covers, although his most famous works are posters produced in the 1930s -1940s, as well as the famous logo for the brand of French acclaimed couturier Yves Saint Laurent.

Influenced by Italian futurism, Jean Carlu produced advertising pieces for the label Odéon and Paul Colin signed the poster for “Black Ball” (1927), a performance of his long time friend Josephine Baker.

The poster fashion and art-déco inspiration was later followed by the incorporation of abstract art elements on album covers, with a special appeal for minimalist paintings. An example of how jazz and visual arts interact is the work of the previously mentioned Dutch painter Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) and his canvases structured around a base with sections filled with primary colors and separated by black lines.

Mondrian regularly cited jazz in his articles and personal correspondence, making no secret of the influence influence of the genre on his art and in his life. Broadway Boogie Woogie (1943) is an example of this direct influence.

Celebrated designer Paula Scher called it an “abstract portrait of Manhattan”. Considered by many to be a masterpiece, the canvas not only pictorially represents formal characteristics of boogie woogie (such as the repetition of bass lines), but it also expresses the seduction of the painter by the lights and sounds of New York.

The work of Mondrian continued to inspire the art of albums over the decades, such as the album Byrd Jazz (1956), by Donald Bird, an instrumental version of the Beatles songs by Roger Webb (John, Paul and All That Jazz, 1964), or a collection João Gilberto, Sylvia Telles & Dick Farney, released in 1988 by EMI..

Jim Flora is also a prominent name when it comes to the construction of a language that became typical of jazz at the time. Record collectors easily recognize his style, directly influenced by the comic art. He worked for Columbia in the 1940s and later pursued a career at RCA Victor.

His illustrations were not urban vignettes and did not necessarily reflect the content of the album. Flora stated that he was not woried about making her designs for the covers complement the music of the album. understanding the cover as a place to show his art (“I always thought that the musicians had already done their part and now it was my turn”, he said in a 1984 interview).

A good example of how Flora manages to escape from the commonplace and still convey an overall idea to the illustration is his work for the cover of the album The Panic is On (RCA Victor, 1954), by the Nick Travis Quintet. The dreamlike atmosphere ( the musicians float in the air) and the complete freedom in relation to proportions and perspectives bring lightness to the composition, as opposed to the “panic” reference in the title, in a typical effect of a Flora cover nothing is exactly as it seems and everything makes sense.

The small revolution brought to the music industry by Steiweiss continuesdto be impactful and engaged with issues such as racism, as in the openly political message on the cover of Boogie Woogie, a collection released in 1941, at a time when racial segregation was institutionalized.

It is no coincidence that the Columbia label was an obligatory passage for cover illustrators. In the mid-1950s, the label it was one of the homes of jazz. Its artists made the genre both popular and avant-garde, crossing borders (we will see later how the paths of jazz and samba crossed) with their experimentations.

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.

With the hiring of S. Neil Fujita, Columbia hoped to keep up with the graphic designs and illustrations released by Blue Note Records. Based on the work of former art director Alex Steinweiss, Fujita was challenged to transform the album art, adapting it to the modernist sounds that Columbia presented.

After assuming artistic direction in 1954, he decided to interpret and transmit the same vigor, abstraction, improvisation and freedom as the jazz artists. At Columbia, Fujita became one of the first graphic designers to employ both men and women in a racially integrated office. He also became the first designer to use painters and photographers to produce album covers.

Many of the original pieces of art that Fujita created as album covers for Columbia include albums that are today considered true masterpieces of 20th century jazz.

Tom Hannan is a prominent character in the visual construction of jazz, as well. He was the designer responsible for the cover art of several jazz labels, especially Prestige and Bethlehem Records, but before turning to the visual arts, Hannanhad actually attempted a career as a drummer.

His designs mix abstract images with unusual typography, translating the aura of improvisation, so typical of jazz. It is interesting to note how his work for the album “The Jazz Experiments of Charlie Mingus” (Bethlehem Records, 1956), which dialogues directly with the collages from the series “Jazz” (1947), by French painter Henri Matisse.

As Tom Hannan, Paul Bacon was also a passionate jazz musician. He is also a name to remember when thinking about the construction of the visual identity of jazz. Bacon was for a long time the main designer of the Blue Note. Most of the covers designed for the first albums of the label, the 7000 series, were his creations. Later, he became the main art director of the company.

Be seeing you!

G.F.

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This is the third part of a series on the relationship between jazz and comic books. Would you like to start at the beginning? You got it! Go to Part 1 . Or go to Part 2

In the second part of this series on the relationship between Comics and Jazz, we mentioned the series of paintings from 1990, by American artist Gil Mayers entitled Jazz.

The work of Mayers is one among many examples that confirm that the connection between visual arts and comic books is a vivid, long-standing one.

Dutch painter Mondrian not only wrote bout jazz, he also painted it! He portrayed his impression of New York in abstract paitings mainly composed of vertical and horizontal lines in red, yellow and blue. New York City I (1941) is considered one of his late period. Mondrian uses yellow lines marking the bottom repeats. Difference in intervals represents the syncopation of jazz.

Mondrian uses colored strips of paper to create the composition, before painting them in oil. A similar technique to that used by Matisse to compose his Jazz series, from 1947, whose title refers to the experimental and improvisational character, typical of the genre.

Picasso, Mondrian and Matisse are examples of artists who, each in their own way, absorbed jazz or some aspect linked to the genre into their works. However, the relationship between jazz and comic books specifically tightened thanks to a small revolution that took place in the music industry, and a fundamental name in this endeavor was Alex Steinweiss.

Albums used to come wrapped in cheap paper until Alex Steinwess introduced designed covers. The use of the album cover not only as a wrapper, but also as a space that complements the main product, added extra value to it was a game changer. In other words, the packaging became part of the product, extending the consumption space of a vinyl.

By creating a new medium to be explored, Steinweiss and the pioneers in this task further strengthened the ties between graphic arts and jazz, and we will discuss more about the formation of jazz aesthetics. For now, I would like to cite one more example about the influence of the novelty brought by Steinweiss: 1968 Robert Crumb designed the album cover of  Big Brother and the Holding Company.

In this work, Crumb converted the album conver into a support for a comic book story, in which each member of the band, including vocalist Janis Joplin, are presented as comic book characters.

Beyond album covers, Literature often uses comic book narratives to represent jazz figures. In 2003, an entire collection edited in France of comic book biographies was released, and in 2021 Comics and Jazz also also the subject of an exhibition last year in Lisbon.

The intersection between jazz and comic books is a fascinating subject that has piqued the interest of many enthusiasts. The relationship between jazz music and its ability to enhance the mood and atmosphere of comic book adaptations on the big screen is a topic of discussion that continues to captivate audiences. One notable example that showcases this connection is the film V for Vendetta (2005, directed by James McTeigue). The use of jazz music in this movie effectively contributes to the transposition of the narrative from the original comic book to the cinematic medium, creating a captivating experience for viewers.

In particular, a memorable instance occurs during a romantic moment between the main characters, where a banned song, the jazz standard “Cry me a River”, sets the tone for a poignant slow dance scene. The haunting melody and evocative lyrics of “Cry me a River” intertwine with the on-screen emotions, enhancing the depth of the characters’ connection and adding layers of complexity to the storyline.

This incorporation of jazz music not only enriches the cinematic experience but also pays homage to the original comic book while adding a unique dimension to the adaptation., demonstrating the enduring impact of this art form across different mediums.

Be seeing you!

G.F.

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This is the second part of a series on the relationship between jazz and comic books. Would you like to start at the beginning? Go to Part 1

American multimedia artist Gil Mayer, on his series of paintings called Jazz:

“I am trying to make it visually stimulating and aurally interesting. I like people to see my work and hear music. It is a testament to my creativity and my interest in this medium“

The spontaneous nature of jazz is often mentioned by musicians and listeners, but it was not always unanimous among its theorists. Among those who saw improvisation as a negative point is the philosopher Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno, one of the most voracious critics of the genre.

Between 1933 and 1953, Adorno published several articles distilling the purest hatred against jazz, even imagining connections between the genre and Nazism (!) (due to its supposed birth in military bands) and decreeing its end. Although Adorno, himself, backed down on several points, there is no denying that the philosopher, usually brilliant in his analyses, found in jazz a theoretical challenge, which he was unable to overcome.

The mistaken predictions of Adorno about jazz deserves to be highlighted in any list of basic analytical errors, starting with his rigid premises, completely inappropriate for his object (the disregard of the author for improvisation stands out).

When talking about jazz, Adorno sounds like an (excellent) pianist playing with boxing gloves: he hits the right one eventually, here and there, but, overall, the action produces a rather unpleasant result.

As a deep admirer of the Frankfurt School in general and, particularly a fan of Adorno, to the point of giving his name to one of my songs, I consider his articles on jazz as minor material in his production, with which, in fact, we will dialogue in different moments of our reflections, such as the famous concept of “cultural industry”, among others.

That said, let us move on to perhaps the first partnership between jazz and the visual arts, the partnership between Stravinsky and Picasso.

First of all, a few words on Ragtime, the genre:

Scott Joplin is one of the main exponents of ragtime, a genre that incorporates African and European syncopation. It should be noted that, like classical music, classical ragtime was based on a written tradition, being distributed in sheet music. Keep this information in mind, as it will be very useful when we talk about the importance of improvisation in jazz.

Stravinsky comes into contact with some of these transcriptions of ragtime music brought from the United States by his friend, conductor Ernest Ansermet in the late 1910s.

Later, in 1918, Stravinsky released “Ragtime”, a work composed for a small orchestra of strings, winds, brass and percussion, which cover ilustration was signed by Picasso, a friend of the maestro.

The work is doubly a reading of the Russian composer, both in the sense that Stravinsky knew ragtime written but not played, and in the sense the version of Stravinsky for ragtime incorporates elements of Russian modernity. For critic Lawrence Budmen, “Ragtime for 11 instruments” represents the uniquely personal take of Stravinsky on the new genre coming from the United States: “At once witty, dissonant and hard-driving, the work might be considered “ragtime with a modern Russian accent.”

The fact that Picasso illustrated the cover of the composition only reinforces the ties between jazz and the modernist avant-garde, which identified with the genre precisely because of its free character. Like Stravinsky, Picasso recognized jazz as a new field of artistic experimentation.

Almost a decade later, in 1927, Dutch painter Piet Mondrian made the relationship between the visual arts and jazz even more explicit in “Jazz and Neo-Plasticism”. As mentioned in part 1, in this series of articles, Mondrian argued that jazz and the then-new visual arts movement represented nothing less than movements. revolutionaries capable of dealing with the impositions of the new use of time and space brought by metropolises.

And the plot was just starting to thicken.

Be seeing yuo!

G.F.