Monday 31 December 2012

David Stone Martin part 1


Illustrator David Stone Martin (1913 – 1992) was one of the most prolific and influential graphic designers of the postwar era, creating over 400 album covers. Much of his work spotlighted jazz, with his signature hand-drawn, calligraphic line perfectly capturing the energy and spontaneity of the idiom.

Born David Livingstone Martin in Chicago in 1913, he later studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and began his career as an assistant to the social realist painter Ben Shahn, designing murals during the 1933 World's Fair. Martin spent the remainder of the decade as art director of the Tennessee Valley Authority, and served during World War II as an artist/correspondent for Life magazine

After returning to the U.S. he mounted a career as a freelance artist doing commissions for clients including Disc Records Company. In 1948 he began teaching at the Brooklyn Museum School of Art, followed in 1950 by a year at New York City's Workshop School of Advertising and Editorial Art.

Martin entered music illustration through his longtime friendship wth producer Norman Granz, designing label art for Granz's Verve, Norgran, Clef, and Down Home imprints as well as hundreds of now-classic cover illustrations for acts including Count Basie, Art Tatum, Gene Krupa, and Lionel Hampton. Martin also created a series of designs for the pianist Mary Lou Williams with whom he had a torrid affair. His work has been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and others. He died of pneumonia in New London, CT, in 1992.

This is part 1 of a 4-part post on the wotks of David Stone Martin:




1940s Coleman Hawkins on Asch Records
Asch Records 78 album

1940s John Kirby and Orchestra 
Asch Records 78 album

1940s Meade Lux Lewis "Boogie" 
Disc Records 78 album

1942 Strong in the Strength of the Lord 
poster

1943 Above and Beyond the Call of Duty 
poster

1944 Folk Songs sung by Josh White
Asch Records

1944 Mary Lou Williams Trio 
Asch Records 78 album

1946 Calypso Vol. 2
Disc Records

1947 Lucky Strike

1947 Lucky Strike

c1947 Muggsy Spanier and his Orchestra 
78 album

1949 Bud Powell Piano 
Mercury Records 10" LP

1949 Bud Powell Piano 
Mercury Records 10" LP

1950 Charlie Parker with Strings Vol. 2 
Mercury Records 78 album

1950 Charlie Parker with Strings
Mercury Records

1950 Flip Phillips
Clef Records

1950 James P. Johnson - New York Jazz 
Stinson Records 10" LP

1950 Machito Afro Cuban Jazz - Charlie Parker, Flip Phillips, Buddy Rich, Chico O'Farrill
Verve Records

1950 Norman Granz' Jazz at the Philharmonic Vol. 3 
Mercury Records 10" LP

1951 Flip Wails - Flip Phillips and his Orchestra 
Clef Records 12" mono LP


1951 Jazz at the Philharmonic Vol. 11 
Mercury Records 10" LP

1951 Jazz at the Philharmonic Vol. 2 
Mercury Records 10" LP

1951 Johnny Hodges Collates Vol. 1
Mercury Records

1952 Benny Carter "Cosmopolite"
Clef Records

1952 Bird and Diz ( Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie studio album ) 
 Clef Records 10" LP

1952 Charlie Parker "South of the Border 
Verve Records 10" LP

1952 Josh White "Josh White Sings Vol. 2 
Asch Records 10" LP

1952 Lester Young Trio studio album 
Mercury Records 10" LP

1952 Lester Young with The Oscar Peterson Trio No. 1
Norgran Records

1952 Lester Young with The Oscar Peterson Trio No. 2
Norgran Records

1952 Oscar Peterson at Carnegie 
Mercury Records 10" LP

1952 Roy Eldridge Collates 
Mercury Records 10" LP

1952 Stan Getz Plays
Clef Records

1952 The Oscar Peterson Quartet 
Norman Granz Records 10" LP

1953 Art Director and Studio News

1953 Billie Holiday Sings with Oscar Peterson on piano 
Mercury Records 10" LP

1953 Count Basie Big Band  
Clef Records 10" LP

 

3 comments:

  1. Another one of his great album covers is for The Artistry of Tal Farlow released by Norgran in 1955.
    Pierre Giroux

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  2. I miss anything to do with music manufacturing that can publish art as a cover and enigmatic addendum ....

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