Just over fifteen years ago, Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker (Soul Jazz Records) published the first Freedom, Rhythm and Sound a unique collection showcasing the stunning graphic works of independently published jazz record cover designs in the 1960s and 1970s from radical jazz musicians such as Sun Ra, John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, The Art Ensemble of Chicago and others.
From the 1960s onwards, these artists helped reshape the cultural landscape for African-American musicians in the USA, changing the role of jazz musician from nightclub entertainer to artist. The artwork of their often self-produced record cover designs during this era reflected their radical agenda, spiritual awareness and singular search for musical and personal freedoms.
Freedom, Rhythm and Sound: CHAPTER TWO is a new second collection featuring hundreds more beautiful and rare jazz record cover designs from the 1960s-1980s. These designs help document the continued developments in jazz as African-American artists set out on new pathways and journeys to enlightenment, heading out into Europe, Japan, Africa and beyond where eager audiences gave them a new-found respect and where local producers and record labels were keen to record their ground-breaking and radical new music. Back at home in the USA, African-American jazz artists in the mid-1970s now also found themselves freer to explore their creative artistry, having successfully renegotiated their relationship with the USA record industry through the pioneering work of those earlier artists.
Through stunning record cover designs Freedom, Rhythm and Sound: CHAPTER TWO acts as a visual documentation of this period. As well as the radical jazz music of this time, the book also includes sections on the record cover art of African-American poets, Civil Rights Speech recordings (Martin Luther King, Malcolm X), early pioneers (Yusef Lateef, Max Roach, Ornette Coleman and others) all of which helped influence and shape the world of radical jazz from the 1960s onwards.
