Blue Note The Jazz Photography of Francis Wolff [Paperback]

Charlie Lourie (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 4, 2000

Following the success of Rizzoli's The Blue Note Years, the treasured archive of Francis Wolff photographs has been opened once again to present a previously unseen collection of dynamic images. Included aer never-before-published color images from Wolff's later years of photography. This volume is a collection of the jazz photographs taken from 1941 to 1968 by Francis Wolff, cofounder of Blue Note Records, to document the world's most famous jazz label.

Vignettes tell the story of Blue Note Records; its founders, Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff; recording master, Rudy Van Gelder; and many of the labels' great artists--Jimmy Smith, Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Grant Green, John Coltrane, Lee Morgan, Hank Mobley, Joe Henderson, and Art Blakey, among others.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Michael Cuscuna was an FM disc jockey and music journalist before turning his attention to producing new recordings and reissues. He has produced Dexter Gordon, Woody Shaw, Bonnie Raitt, and McCoy Tyner, among others. He is also a consultant, producer, and reissue director for Blue Note Records, which was reactivated in 1984. He has served as consultant on the film Round Midnight, Ken Burns' JAZZ, and Columbia's Miles Davis reissue series.

Charlie Lourie was a professional woodwind player and saxophonist in the greater Boston area before moving into the music industry. He was a marketing executive at Columbia Records, a director of marketing for Blue Note Records and a director of jazz and progressive music at Warner Bros. Records. In 1982 Lourie and Michael Cuscuna founded Mosaic Records, a direct-mail label dedicated to reissuing classic jazz recordings in definitive, limited-edition boxed sets.

Oscar Schnider is a founding partner of the multidisciplinary design firm Schnider & Yoshina, Ltd., located in New York City. While his firm specializes in global marketing programs, he remains passionately involved in creative projects promoting jazz, including designing the Mosaic Records brochures and promoting the annual Panasonic Village Jazz Festival in New York City.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Universe (November 4, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789304937
• ISBN-13: 978-0789304933
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,060,325 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The All Seeing Eye of Blue Note Records, October 25, 2000

By 

T Berry Shuffle (WVFS 89.7 Tallahassee) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blue Note The Jazz Photography of Francis Wolff (Paperback)

This is the finest collection of Jazz Photography ever assembled! If you're a fan of jazz, or Blue Note Records, you must own this book. As a co-owner of Blue Note, Francis Wolff had the opportunity to arrest time with his lens while the titans of jazz created quintessential music. All the faces you would expect are here, Thelonious Monk, Miles, Coltrane, etc. Yet so are others whose names have been unfairly excluded from the roster of jazz immortals, men like Hank Mobley, Sonny Clark, Lee Morgan and many more. This collection is tastefully assembled, carefully balancing a trove of color and black & white prints with aesthetic perfection. Its 176 pages are bursting with images that inebriate the eyes; many are published here for the first time. Along the way, written snapshots built on the visual perspective. You can hear the music pouring from these images. You can feel the excitement of it's genesis. The musicians were comfortable with Wolff and his lens. He captured their essence in a way that no other could. Pick this up before it goes out of print.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Phantastic photography!, October 20, 2000

By 

Joerg Colberg (Northampton, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blue Note The Jazz Photography of Francis Wolff (Paperback)

Even if you haven't heard the name Francis Wolff before you have probably seen many of his photos already. They can be found on many Blue Note albums. Some of them also became classics on their own. Francis Wolff is the co-founder of the Blue Note record label. Before becoming a full-time producer by the end of the Sixties, he spent a lot of his time taking photos of the artists while they were recording. All these photos are taken with a sort of simple equipment (just a camera and one flash) without posing. The photos were taken while the musicians were playing or composing of resting. There is an enormous depth and clarity in the pictures and you can nearly sense the personalities of the musicians. This collection of Wolff's photography is a must for every fan of classical photography and, of course, it's a must for die-hard Blue Note fans.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Looking at the sound, July 27, 2008

By 

Robin Benson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blue Note The Jazz Photography of Francis Wolff (Paperback)

I had thought that this was the paperback version of The Blue Note Years: The Jazz Photography of Francis Wolff but as it says in the book this is another selection of Francis Wolf photos, most unseen, too. If you've ever seen a Blue Note LP cover from the fifties and sixties you'll know what Wolff's photos look like: mostly photographed in Rudy Van Gelder's darkened recording studio, so the musicians leap at you because there are hardly any other visual distractions, their bodies have a texture that fades into the dark background.

I particularly like the photos because Wolff doesn't make his presence felt, no one is looking at the camera, these guys were captured socking out another cracking Blue Note session. With these photos you can see what the BN sound looked like and nicely, the captions list the titles to the sessions so if you have any of the recordings you'll be able to add an extra dimension to the listening experience.

The book looks pretty cool, too. The black and whites are printed in four color to give them a solid appearance but surprisingly the screen is only 150 though the printing gives the impression that 175 or 200dpi might have been used on the matt art paper. The contemporary looking layout enhances the images. There are several musicians who get more than one photo but oddly only one of the great Rudy Van Gelder. To my mind he is the one responsible for the success of the label over the years. Maybe the first book had more of him at work.

Overall a beautiful book of jazz photos and it certainly goes well with Blue Note: Album Cover Artby Graham Marsh where designer Reid Miles does wonders with Francis Wolff's camera creativity.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.