Blue Note's album covers from 1940 - 1970 have the most consistently beautiful artwork any record label. Many of these albums are still difficult to track down, but the label's reissue program for this period, the Rudy Van Gelder Edition series, seems to be fixing this problem. I've been buying up a few of these reissues over the past couple of years, and thanks to a sale at the local record shop, I've recently bought a few more. So here's a display of the ones I've bought so far:













Anyone interested in seeing more of these beautiful covers should either start buying up the Rudy Van Gelder editions (and gorgeous covers or not, the music on these albums is fascinating jazz, ranging from hard bop to post bop to soul jazz, and often the leader on the album isn't the only standout player (see Elvin Jones on Sonny Rollins' A Night at the Village Vangaurd for proof)) or you can get this coffee table book filled with 400 Blue Note covers. For now, I'll stick with the albums, but I'm sure someday I'll have the book as well.
posted by Jonathan