BEVERLY HILLS, CA – August 13, 2009 - In celebration of the 60th anniversary of Prestige Records, Concord Music Group has partnered with Rare Cool Stuff to create Prestige Records: The Album Cover Collection. The deluxe, limited-edition hardbound volume is the companion piece to the new double-CD anthology, The Very Best of Prestige Records. Containing the best - and some of the rarest - LP covers produced over the long history of the label, this collection also features an introduction by famed jazz documentarian Ira Gitler, who wrote liner notes for many of Prestige's earliest and most well-known records and continues to this day to contribute notes for Concord's ongoing Rudy Van Gelder Remasters series. In addition, the book also contains an exclusive bonus CD featuring music from the Prestige vault.
Nick Phillips, Vice President of Jazz and Catalog A&R at Concord, and producer of the 60th anniversary 2-CD compilation, says the visual aspect of Prestige Records - the cover photography, the typography, the overall design aesthetic - played an important role in the label's appeal among jazz listeners for so many years. "The Prestige label's album covers are every bit a reflection of the timeless artistry of the iconic imprint, as are the legendary jazz recordings they represent, as this book beautifully illustrates," says Phillips. Editor's notes are provided by Grammy-nominated art director and designer Geoff Gans, who compiled, edited, and designed the album cover collection. Gans recalls his earliest experiences with Prestige Records being as visual as they were musical: "The way I originally discovered a lot of these great recordings back in the day was through these visually compelling covers," he says. "I also thought it would be really important to include a companion CD within the book - something that people could put on and hear what some of the music from these great-looking records sounded like. There's no overlap between what's on the bonus disc that comes with the book and what's on the Prestige 2-disc anniversary set, so anyone who buys both the anniversary set and the book gets an even better picture of what Prestige was about - the ‘Prestige vibe’ as I call it."
Gitler's introduction tracks the genesis and evolution of the Prestige label - founded by Bob Weinstock in the late 1940s - and the concurrent evolution of the design aesthetic that defined its covers. The advent of the 12-inch LP in the mid-1950s ushered in the heyday of the Prestige album cover aesthetic, says Gitler, a Prestige staffer during the label's early years. "The size, helping to showcase the art, photos and inventive lettering of the front covers and the liner notes on the back, which allowed customers in a record store to read about what they might be considering to purchase, made the 12-inch LP a perfect package," Gitler recalls. A generous slice of that perfection - musical as well as visual - is reverently chronicled inPrestige Records: The Album Cover Collection. "We've seen a lot of album cover books over the past several years," says Gans. "I wanted this to be like a coffee table art book. The kind of book that, if you looked at it and listened to the music on the CD, featuring music from some of the records whose covers are in the book, it would inspire you to seek out more of the works of all the great artists associated with the Prestige label. That was also my goal in forming Rare Cool Stuff - as a tool to preserve collections such as these and present them in the manner which they deserve for generations to come. We are extremely proud to have this opportunity to work with Concord Music Group on such a great project."
About Concord Music Group
The Concord Music Group is one of the largest independent record and music publishing companies in the world and owner of a rich and, in many cases, historically significant catalog of recordings. Concord Music Group's legendary family of labels includes Concord Records, Concord Jazz, Fantasy, Stax, Milestone, Riverside, Specialty, Telarc, Peak, Heads Up, Pablo, and Prestige, to name a few. They include titles from some of the most admired and enduring names in music, including Ray Brown, Rosemary Clooney, John Coltrane, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Isaac Hayes, Little Richard, Thelonious Monk, Oscar Peterson, Tito Puente, George Shearing, and Mel Torme. The group's current roster of world-class artists includes: George Benson, Boney James, Tift Merritt, Spencer Day, Chick Corea, Kurt Elling, Gerald Albright, Will Downing, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Sergio Mendes, Jane Monheit, Poncho Sanchez, Lalah Hathaway, Angie Stone, and Tierney Sutton among many others. In 2007 Concord partnered with Starbucks to form Hear Music, an innovative record label rooted in quality, authenticity, and passion. Hear Music works directly with artists, both emerging and established, to bring quality music to the widest possible audience, in both Starbucks locations and wherever music is sold. Hear Music's roster includes James Taylor, John Mellencamp, Anjulie, Elvis Costello, and Playing For Change.
http://www.concordmusicgroup.com/
Green Statement
Prestige Records: The Album Cover Collection was produced using paper that was made in an environmentally responsible manner. The paper used, Lumi Silk, is from the FSC-COC certified Stora Enso mill in Oulu, Finland. In addition the book was printed at a FSC-COC certified printer in China. The Forest Stewardship Council advocates that the world's wood and pulp needs be supplied from trees that are harvested from FSC certified sustainable forests throughout the world. FSC certified forests are managed in a socially, economically, and environmentally responsible manner. For more on the FSC visit their web site at www.fsc.org
Jeff Spector
Product Manager
Concord Music Group, Inc.
100 N.Crescent Drive
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
(310) 385-4161
(310) 424-0835 Mobile
jeffreys@concordrecords.com
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