Monday, 31 October 2011

Saul Bass album cover


I had not seen this '50s ['56?] album cover before, by the great Saul Bass, for a Frank Sinatra album I had not heard of before. I am fairly familiar with Frank's classic '50s albums like "Songs for Swinging Lovers" which I love, and those classic Nelson Riddle albums like "Come Fly With Me", "In The Wee Small Hours", but this imagery is so perfectly '50s and a work of art in its own right - you could hang this on the wall and enjoy seeing it every day. Not a Sinatra album as such, there are no familiar or singable melodies here and of course no words or vocalists. They are semi-classical orchestral tone poems, classy easy listening perhaps.

Bass of course created those marvellous titles for films as diverse as ANATOMY OF A MURDER, VERTIGO, MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM, EXODUS and so many others, as well as graphics for advertising, logos etc. and those later Scorsese fims like CAPE FEAR, AGE OF INNOCENCE etc. One of the truly innovative masters of advertising graphics, as celebrated in a book book on his art.

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