Blue Note Meets Metal

I've always been a huge fan of the Blue Note-era style album covers and concert posters.  The typography and artwork brought another dimension of jazz to he recording.  When I came across this collection of images from Brazilian artist Rafa Melandi, my mind was blown.  Melandi took a few badass metal albums (like Master of Puppets, Reign In Blood, Among The Living, etc) and gives them a coat of paint that both Saul Bass and Freddie Hubbard would be proud of.


http://www.kotaku.com.au/2015/01/classic-metal-albums-redesigned/

Happy Birthday Scott LaFaro

Scott LaFaro is one of my musical idols. His work with Bill Evans on the Village Vanguard recordings of 1961 moves mountains in my soul.  His tasteful interplay with Bill Evans in their trio was mutually stimulating and influential.  At 25, his death in a car accident was a major shock to the jazz world.  One can only imagine what he would have went on to compose.

I have a deep appreciation for LaFaro's graceful lines and his colorful use of space.  The way he interacted and conversated with the piano made for a dark/light contrast that was subtle, like pulling light from a shadow. 

In homage to Mr. LaFaro's work, I created the following pieces based on a photograph I found in a jazz archive site.  The photo credit is unknown. 
 

"Scott's Portrait in Jazz"
16x20 Silkscreen and Acyrlic

"Scott's Portrait in Jazz"
16x20 Silkscreen on Board

I made a few shirts as well:

A Mingus Among Us

"Contour of Charles Mingus"
Silkscreen and Airbrush
18x24

Bill Evans on the Creative Process and Self-Teaching

In 1966, legendary jazz pianist Bill Evans (August 16, 1929–September 15, 1980) sat down with his composer brother, Harry Evans, for an intense and deeply insightful conversation later released as Universal Mind of Bill Evans: The Creative Process and Self-Teaching. From filmmaker William Meier comes this gorgeous cinematic adaptation of Evans’s thoughts on the autodidactic quality of creativity and the value of working at the intersection of clarity, complexity, and spontaneity.







Here is a longer excerpt from the documentary, where Evans discusses the step-by-step process of creative problem-solving: