Coda

WHEN JIM FLORA was promoted to Art Director at Columbia Records in 1943, one of his first innovations was a monthly new-release booklet called Coda, highlighting the label’s latest classical, jazz and pop releases. Coda was illustrated — front cover to back — by Flora. “I took ’em home and did them,” he explained in a 1998 interview. “This was my fancy and I wasn’t going to let anyone else do it.” Here are samples of his idiosyncratic work from the pages of Coda.

COVER
APRIL 1943

INTERIOR ILLUSTRATION
AUGUST 1943

INTERIOR ILLUSTRATION
SEPTEMBER 1943

INTERIOR ILLUSTRATION
APRIL 1944

COVER
APRIL 1945

INTERIOR ILLUSTRATION
APRIL 1945

INTERIOR ILLUSTRATION
MAY 1945

COVER
SEPTEMBER 1945