#jazz posters

[stealfocus]

ARTIST: Niklaus Troxler

[viuspencil]

Los Pacholos, jazz a gas

My new hobby is making fake posters for invented jazz bands with names that I think sound funny. Los Pacholos, jazz a gas so you dance non stoppp

[lucienballard]

Montreux Jazz Festival

Keith Haring

1983

[mosaicrecords]

The Art of Jazz

The Jazz Posters of Mytton Williams

Being an obsessive poster collector, I'm always a bit depressed about how few well designed jazz posters there are. At least in the United States. Europe can be a different story. Case in point. Bob Mytton, artist and proprietor of the MyttonWilliams design studio in the UK, was feeling a bit creatively stuck and gave himself a challenge. Like anyone who loves jazz –especially a graphic designer– Reid Miles obviously looms large in his consciousness. So? 100 posters designed in 100 days about 100 jazz musicians! When I stumbled upon his online shop it was a poster lovers dream. Each one was beautiful, thoughtful, and captured a spot on essence of its subject. You can read Bob's JazzTypes process below. Maybe it'll shake your own mind a bit. 

A tip: While there are only 12 posters in the shop, the site manager tells me that any of the designs you see on the site can be printed and shipped. And if books are your preference, for £40 plus shipping, there’s a book they’ve made with all of them! I'm saving up my pennies now. 

-Fred Seibert

See his posters…

Follow: Mosaic Records Facebook Tumblr Twitter

[i12bent]

Danish graphic designer Finn Hjernøe is 79 today. Specializing in jazz-themed posters, Hjernøe has created a bunch of colorful posters over the years.

He is also the creator of over 150 brand logos, nationally and internationally, which makes him one of the most viewed artists in the country...

Above is a rare Hjernøe poster for a Ben Webster koncert at Jazzhus Tagskægget in Århus, 1969

[didierleclair]

JAZZ HEART BEATS....

[stealfocus]

FEATURE: NIKLAUS TROXLER

[mosaicrecords]

The Art of Jazz

The Jazz Posters of Niklaus Troxler

This post is long overdue. As is serious recognition for Niklaus Troxler, one of earth's extraordinary, unsung graphic designers and illustrators of jazz. If he's so great, why is he so under-acknowledged? Troxler's story begins, and actually ends, with his hometown loyalty to the farming village of Willisau, Switzerland (population 7,700). His love of jazz (and new jazz in particular) wasn't going to stop him from seeing his heroes. So, in 1975 he started the Willisau Jazz Festival with a program that included Cecil Taylor, Archie Shepp, Frank Wright, and John Tchicai, and he was off to the festival races. Over the years, Willisau's programs have ranged from Keith Jarrett to Fred Wesley, from Champion Jack Dupree to Ornette Coleman. If a small, out of the way festival was all there was to it (and organizing events for 50 years is no minuscule feat!) we might well be going ho-hum. But, the fact that Troxler is an outstanding, award- winning designer – with himself as a client – means that he's turned out dozens of the most arresting poster designs for jazz artists that the world has ever seen. Year after year, he has used his considerable talents to create a visual language that is as personal as any of his musical idols. For all their beauty and rarity, Troxler's posters can be reasonably priced, starting at around $250 (that's more than tolerable in poster collecting). Most of the rare, beautiful books of Troxler best jazz work can cost more than the posters but there's a reasonable collection for $25 here at Amazon. I once had a conversation with Nat Hentoff about the amazing African American photographer Roy DeCarava in which Hentoff related a truth that can also perfectly describe Niklaus Troxler. "He's not a artist. He's a composer." Read more about Troxler here, here, here, and here.

-Fred Seibert

Follow: Mosaic Records Facebook Tumblr Twitter