[Dixielandjazz] Alex Steinweiss book reviewed

[Robert Ringwald]

Photo-Op: Recording Star
Wall Street Journal, March 19, 2011
A photograph was Alex Steinweiss's breakthrough, but photography proved his downfall.
In 1940, the young Brooklyn-born graphic designer at Columbia Records realized that
the plain, boxy packaging of 78-rpm albums was an inviting place for poster-like
illustrations that might appeal to customers. He persuaded a Times Square theater
manager to put the words "Smash Song Hits by Rodgers and Hart" briefly on the marquee,
photographed it and then placed the photo on an album cover with a background of
red grooves, as on a vinyl record. An industry's marketing was transformed. Much
of Mr. Steinweiss's work is collected by Kevin Reagan in "Alex Steinweiss: The Inventor
of the Modern Album Cover" (Taschen, 416 pages, $69.99), a handsome tribute that
presents the album covers at just about their original size. Working in a Modernist-influenced
style -- Mr. Steinweiss's designs included bold colors, lean lines, cut-out figures,
printed and handwritten lettering -- he produced hundreds of covers like the ones
above for Bing Crosby (1948), Paul Robeson (1943) and Bela Bartok (ca. 1956). The
heavy use of photography for pop and rock albums in the 1950s and 1960s put him out
of business. But he has another legacy: In 1948, Mr. Steinweiss (who is now 93) invented
the pasteboard container for long-playing albums, providing a venue for all the cover
designers and liner-notes writers who followed... until the compact disc and iTunes
made them largely obsolete as well.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704399804576192973640535888.html


--Bob Ringwald
www.ringwald.com
Fulton Street Jazz Band
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An Irish Man is sitting in the pub with his wife and he says, "I love you."
She asks, "Is that you or the beer talking?"
He replies, "It's me talking to the beer."