THE BLUEST NOTE • Word’s Best Jazz Recording Studio

This special serigraph was created to celebrate the 85th Anniversary of Blue Note Records, a legendary jazz recording label that grew to be a massive influence on modern music, art, and culture. Records in styles ranging from bebop to hard bop, modern jazz to avant-garde music have been made here, as performed by artists such as Sidney Bechet, Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey, Milt Jackson, Horace Silver, and Jimmy Smith. Blue Note Records was celebrated for the pioneering graphic design of its covers in the 1950s and 1960s, under the direction of art director Reid Miles, who created a graphic language that is now associated with jazz music.

Shag is like a handbook for the record industry, offering everything in this long-form work: the sweaty recording sessions, the overtime-working art department, the record shop waiting for the final product, and the amateur lady finally enjoying her turntable and sleepless trumpet serenade. Even the ever-presence curious cat is displayed!

Shag shares his inspiration for The Bluest Note: “I wanted to show the process of making a Blue Note Record, from the recording process to the photography and graphic design, to the distribution in record stores. Finally, I wanted to picture a finished record being enjoyed by a listener. The two founders of the label, Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff are in the image. Alfred Lion was involved in producing and recording the albums and Francis Wolf took the distinctive black and white photography that came to symbolize the record label.” – A fantastic birthday present (85!) to take home and ready to hang!

The “THE BLUEST NOTE” Studio Proof (SP 21/30) is an 11-color serigraph hand signed and numbered by SHAG and Includes a Certificate of Authenticity (C.O.A.) issued by our gallery.

FRAMING INFORMATION: Custom-made 4cm wide, white Italian lacquered wood frame, with 1cm wide, inner purple color wood frame. Covered for optimum longevity with 2mm artist glass.

MORE INFORMATION:

EDITION SIZE: 100 +30 SP (2024) 

C.O.A.: SP 3/25

RETRO FRAMED SIZE: 58cm x 124cm