re on the recording companies to use work by black artists on the covers? Some of the important record producers at the time were Turkish--not obligated to "gentlemen's agreements." Interacting as close friends and kindred spirits, African American visual artists and jazz musicians were coming out of the same "bag" and expressing the experience in complementary ways in their respective mediums. Their collaboration in the creation and packaging of jazz seems only right and natural. Nearing the completion of his general article, Robert O'Meally and a few colleagues discovered that a fascinating story remains to be told about the black presence and absence in the art of the jazz LP album. A quick survey was conducted to gather information and plan part two of this article. The discovery began when Corrine Jennings of Kenkeleba Gallery in New York notified us of a color slide that she had taken of a painting by Charles Alston that apparently had been commissioned by Duke Ellington to be used as cover art for a recording of his "Black, Brown and Beige" suite. Alston's watercolor is entitled "Black, Brown and Beige"; there is a subtitle: "A Tone Parallel" and hand-lettered at the bottom is: "Columbia Recording Company." The painting never was used. Investigating the circumstances of the production and fate of the Alston work has been a useful exercise in learning about a matrix of racial, aesthetic, and economic motives within the recording industry. Recorded during its premier performance at Carnegie Hall in 1943, the "Black, Brown and Beige" suite was released in an abbreviated version in 1945 in an illustrated double sleeve with a photograph of Ellington on the cover. In 1958, Duke and Mahalia Jackson performed the piece at the Newport Jazz Festival. The release of that recording showed both performers on the cover. When the full, original recording was issued by Prestige in 1977 in a double sleeve containing a num...
