Filed Under: "Columbia Records"

Leon Bix Beiderbecke was born today in 1903. Beiderbecke, a cornetist (caricatured above left by Flora in 1947) and pianist, was a stylistic catalyst in the formative years of jazz. Bix and trumpeter Louis Armstrong were the two most pivotal horn players of the 1920s, though their approaches differed markedly. Beiderbecke has been described as the first real modernist in jazz, though that doesn’t explain his enduring appeal. (Each year when the calendar flips to…

Spot illustration by Flora Columbia Records Coda booklet, June 1943 Production still (actor Tommy Rettig)The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. Tthe only non-animated motion picturebased on characters created by Dr. Seuss(who was born on this day in 1905)

pen & ink with pencil outline, detail, sketchbook,ca. 1950-51, when Flora was living in Mexico Here’s an undated forebear: Distant relative, from a 1948 Columbia Records ad(fully reproduced in The Curiously Sinister Art of Jim Flora)

Our 2009 Jim Flora fine art print series kicks off with a limited-edition, archival-quality giclee of a classic Columbia Records album cover, Kid Ory and His Creole Jazz Band. The oversized (15-3/4″ x 15-1/2″) print image is larger than the original album cover. The album was released in 1947 as a 78 rpm four-disc set, and was part of Columbia’s Hot Jazz series. Trombonist Edward “Kid” Ory (1886-1973) was a legendary pioneer in the development…

Detail, Peter and the Wolf album promotion,Columbia Coda, January 1953. Wolf on lunch break.

A celebrity in its own right, brags to the media about Benny’s awesome embouchure. Reporter doggedly chronicles sensationalistic account, anticipates major scoop. Detail, Columbia Records ad, Look magazine, 1943.

Part of Flora’s is alsopart of Columbia’s.

Spot illustration, Coda, June 1943

Cover, Columbia-Okeh Popular Records new release monthly, March 1943. (The sepia tint is an aging artifact.) Flora had designed these foldout booklets — covers and interiors — over the second half of 1942. Columbia appointed Flora art director, succeeding Alex Steinweiss, in late 1943, and he continued illustrating these monthlies through 1944. Three full 1942 spreads were reproduced in The Curiously Sinister Art of Jim Flora.

Cover artwork (typography removed) of Sidney Bechet 78 rpm set (Columbia C-173), 1948. Flora had a particular fondness for early New Orleans jazz, especially the recordings of legendary soprano saxophonist/clarinetist Bechet (1897-1959).

This is a test. Go here. In the green menu at the left, click “request a song.” Select a letter (or a number) at the top — any one. Select an artist — any artist. One you know, one you don’t — it’s just a drill. (Caveat: a band whose name begins with “The” appears under “T.” Hence, there are more “T” artists than any other letter.) Click on album title (not cover thumbnail). Request…

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