Jazz: Through the Eyes of the Artist

By Paul Rogers

It’s always an honor to be asked to design a stamp. So when USPS art director Howard Paine called me about a stamp that would pay homage to America’s original art form, jazz, I said yes instantly.

Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, and about a dozen other jazz musicians have been honored with stamps in the past, and in 2008 Michael Bartalos designed a wonderful Latin Jazz stamp. But there has never been a single stamp to pay tribute to full American jazz heritage.

Howard gave me only two requirements for this stamp: The four letters J-A-Z-Z must appear, and the image should not feature any recognizable musicians.

I started off by looking at artists I admire who have created visual art with connections to jazz. My three biggest influences were American painter Stuart Davis; the great illustrator, David Stone Martin; and legendary album cover designer Alex Steinweiss.

1964 Fine Arts stamp by Stuart Davis

Album covers by David Stone Martin

Album covers by Alex Steinweiss

These artists created designs that seem to swing just as hard as the jazz music they loved. I would have to rise to the occasion to deliver a design that would sit well with those images, or I’d feel that I’d missed an opportunity.

I decided to design three concepts for Howard Paine. My first two designs were a mix of letter-forms and musical instruments. The third depicted a jazz combo hard at work in a recording session. Its interplay of letter-forms and people visualized the unspoken communication that flows between jazz musicians.

Rather than showing Howard the pencil sketches, I delivered all three concepts completely finished. I didn’t want Howard and the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee to have to imagine what I was thinking just by looking at the sketches.

The third concept met with instant approval, and only a few changes needed to be made before it was finalized: I fine-tuned some of the shapes as suggested by Howard and added a female singer to the top left corner.

Working on this stamp was special for me. I love jazz music and have great respect for its history — and for the men and women who have dedicated their lives to it.

One of the best parts of the experience was showing the design to the great Alex Steinweiss. He loved it, and it felt good to let him know how much his work still influences artists today.