NEW YORK, NY.- WAIL is the first book devoted exclusively to the creators of the pioneering album cover design of Prestige Records, home to such musical giants as Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk, and John Coltrane. Unprecedented in detail, WAIL documents a vital decade of creative brilliance and is a crucial contribution to graphic design history.
An independent New York City label founded by Bob Weinstock in 1949, Prestige chronicled the vibrant modern jazz scene of the 1950s. At Prestige, the alliance of postwar jazz and modern art found its deepest and most enduring expression. Inspired by some of the most significant music ever recorded, Prestige album covers are a compelling panorama of midcentury graphic design, and WAIL tracks the evolution of Prestige’s visual identity through the personal stories of the people who shaped it. The new medium of record packaging provided the opportunity to create a visual corollary to jazz. At Prestige, the music and art achieved an extraordinary symbiosis. Designed on a shoestring by a handful of visionary young artists, these covers trace a breathtaking creative arc. Liberated by contemporary European graphic design movements, the designers employed a wide range of radical styles and techniques. The result was unique, audacious, and resolutely modern.
WAIL introduces the designers who established this visual language for modern jazz. It is a survey of the creative vision and shared experience among a small group of ingenious artists, designers, and photographers. The result of more than 20 years of research, the book is comprised of meticulously photographed album covers, artefacts, and ephemera, as well as profiles of each of the major Prestige figures. Exclusive first-hand interviews and estate materials provide cultural context and singular insight into the design process. Unseen sketches, personal photographs and outtakes from album cover shoots impart a vivid picture of mid-1950s New York. With no central repository of Prestige LPs; each original cover featured in WAIL had to be tracked, located and photographed, and are all first issue/pressings, meticulously photographed and sourced from private collections.
WAIL is, above all, a story of creative triumph. Drawn from a wealth of previously unpublished material, the book is an inspirational record of landmark graphic design. WAIL features an introduction by design historian Steven Heller, a foreword by legendary Prestige recording artist Sonny Rollins and an afterword by Grammy-nominated graphic designer Hollis King.
From Steven Heller’s introduction: “Unearthing this treasure trove of design relics is as exhilarating to the eye of a design documentarian as are previously unheard tunes to the ear of a music connoisseur. This book is an important exploration, especially for those studying the histories of the postwar American jazz era… Havens and Entwisle have solidly researched the raw history of a fertile period when album covers, especially in the jazz genre, were sometimes as noteworthy—and oft times as iconic—as the sounds they covered. That the authors tracked down so many of the people who were relevant to Prestige and documented their firsthand remembrances is not only a colossal accomplishment, but also an insightful contribution to our collective knowledge. I only had to see a dozen pieces to experience the revelatory hot flash when one is introduced to something important that had been unknown prior to that very moment."
Chris Entwisle is an artist and illustrator. For over thirty years, he has used his passion for both jazz and postwar graphic design in his illustration work. Entwisle has a BA in graphic design from Rutgers University. He and his wife live in the Philadelphia area.
Mark Havens is an artist and educator with a dual background in graphic and industrial design. His work has been exhibited internationally and is held in both public and private collections. Out of Season, his first major monograph, was described by the New York Times as “a decade-long elegy.” Havens is a professor of industrial design at Thomas Jefferson University.
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