The artwork that graces the covers of our favorite albums is more than just a way to tell us what we’re listening to; it’s the translation of sound and vision, music made manifest into a physical object that we can see with our eyes or even hold in our hands. The best album covers aren’t just signifiers of our favorite music, they’re striking works of art in their own right, a collaboration between musicians, the designers, and visual artists that create the packaging for their work.
One such artist is Francis Wolff, the visionary photographer andBlue Note Recordsco-founder. Together with graphic designer Reid Miles, he helped define the aesthetic of the label’s iconic album covers and subsequently, jazz album art at large. Wolff was a commercial photographer in his native Berlin before escaping on the last boat out of Nazi-controlled Germany bound for America in late 1939. Arriving in New York City, he joined his childhood friend and fellow jazz enthusiast Alfred Lion, who had just founded a small independent jazz label called Blue Note Records. Soon Wolff was bringing his camera to recording sessions and jazz clubs, where he’d capture intimate portraits of the musicians at work, steadily building one of the greatest collections of jazz photography of all time over the next three decades.