Eric Dolphy in a loft on Water Street. Practicing day and night, Dolphy never slept much and "drove me crazy," Overstreet recalls. "He would lay out his instruments in a row and, proceeding from left to right, would pick up one after another to play." "Music Making the Harvest Grow," a drawing by Weusi member Ademola Olgbefola appears on the back cover of "Rare Bird," a recording of previously unreleased music of Charlie Parker issued on the Oki Doke label in the 1960s or early 1970s. Taking an altogether different view, bassist Ron Carter places the responsibility for getting more black-produced cover art squarely on the musicians and artists, themselves: "The musicians just leave the studio (after recording) and don't get involved," he says. "They could have presented some artists for the companies to consider--presented some options for the art work. But the musician just goes home--doesn't think about what's on the cover." He also questions the attitude of the artists: "The painters and sculptors don't see it (the jazz album cover) as an appropriate and viable medium to show their work." Carter was just arriving home from a trip to Cleveland so, except for himself, we didn't ask him about exceptions to the pattern that he perceives. Black artists whose work appears on Ron Carter's albums include Manuel Hughes, Roy Decarava, Valerie Maynard and Carter's son, Myles. Carter, who's married to an art dealer, declares "I've been actively pursuing this for years (getting more black visual artists on covers)." One intriguing "exception" known to Ron Carter and other persons we contacted is African American artist Richard Jennings who was known as "Prophet." In the 1960s Prophet aimed his creation at the album cover not the gallery wall. The artist did covers for an album by Max Roach, two by Eric Dolphy, including "Out There" on Prestige, a painting for a Thelonius Monk album cover (which was based on a black and wh...
