Jazz: under the covers

摘要

For 60 years we've been using the word more or less interchangeably with 'LP', but once upon a time, an 'album' was a kind of book containing several 78rpm discs. A classical symphony would come in suitably restrained and dignified packaging but by the 1940s, jazz albums were being decorated with racy and exciting artwork. Also in the mid-1940s, a few small independent labels began to record the new and rebellious music called be-bop for their single 78rpm releases. But by 1950, the be-bop craze had passed, modern jazz had almost come of age, and the long-playing record had arrived. In the LP era, album cover art took on a new importance, for majors and independents alike.