Scheherajazz

Released on the budget Somerset label in America in 1959, Scheherajazz has become a bit of a cult recording apparently. Although not credited, the cover is by Will Dresser, who did quite a few designs for the label from the late 1950s and through the Sixties. Many betray their budget origins but every so often he managed to sneak a decent design through. Here the cover photograph is by George Pickow, blending a Middle Eastern belly dancer with jazz instruments, in case you hadn’t already got the connections with Rimsky-Korsakov’s symphonic poem Scheherazade! Pickow worked on album covers from the late 1950s on as album covers increasingly moved to using photos on their covers. His work can be seen on a lot of Elektra releases as well as smaller labels.
Lloyd “Skip” Martin was an American clarinetist, saxophonist, and arranger. The album was finally reissued on compact disc from the original tapes a few years ago and in Switzerland has been transcribed to enable new live performances in 2016 – the original was only ever a studio project. And while you might expect this sort of vintage budget catalogue to have disappeared, the digital rights are very much alive and owned by a subsidiary of BMG in Germany.
The original vinyl label Below) is worth a mention too. It’s one of those logos which is not particularly well done or a great design, but because it looks so much of the time it has got a wonderful retro quality about it today.