NEWPORT JAZZ FESTIVAL, 1955
Robert Brownjohn [Designer]
Robert Brownjohn [Designer]: NEWPORT JAZZ FESTIVAL, 1955. New York: Jacques Willaumez Associates, 1955. First edition. Slim quarto. Thick stapled wrappers. 98 pp. Illustrated articles and trade advertisements. Photogram cover by Robert Brownjohn. Faint wear overall. A nearly fine copy.
8.5 x 11.25 magazine promoting the 1955 Newport Jazz Festival, with text contributions from Louis L. Lorillard, Duke Ellington, Nate Hentoff, Charlie Bourgeois, Marshall Stearns, S. I. Hayakawa. Photography by Jay Maisel, Tom Palumbo, Gjon Mili, Sheldon Brody and Richard Avedon. Illustrations by Rene Bouché and David Stone Martin [full-page ad for Naragansett Lager]. Exceptional graphic design throughout including full-page photograms and elaborate typography by jazz aficionado and heroin addict Robert Brownjohn.
- Jazz Portraits by Richard Avedon: 18-page portfolio of black and white portraits of George T. Wein, Pee Wee Russell, Coleman Hawkins, Bobby Hackett, Wilbur De Paris, Stan Rubin, Louis Armstrong, Gerry Mulligan, and Duke Ellington.
- Jazz Sketchbook by Rene Bouché. 6 pages of black and white illustations.
- Gospel: Reservoir of Inspiration for the Jazzman. Photography by Sheldon Brody.
- Six by Gjon Mili.
- Who’s Who at the Newport Jazz Festival: short biographies of 45 participating artists.
The 1955 Newport Jazz Festival Lineup:
FRIDAY: Stan Rubin and his Tigertown Five; Errol Garner: Fats Heard, Wyatt Reuther; Teddi King: Nat Pierce and members of the Woody Herman Orchestra; Woody Herman and his Orchestra: Chuck Flores, John Beal, Nat Pierce, Art Pirie, Richie Kamuca, Dick Hafer, Jack Nimitz, Sy Touff, Dick Kenny, Keith Moon, Charlie Walp, Jerry Kail, Cam Mullins, Ruben LaFall, Dick Collins; Roy Eldridge and Coleman Hawkins; Joe Turner: Roy Eldridge and Coleman Hawkins; Louis Armstrong and his Orchestra: Billy Kyle, Arvell Shaw, Trummy Young, Barney Bigard, Barrett Deems, Velma Middleton; Finale: Louis Armstrong All Stars, Roy Eldridge, Coleman Hawkins, Erroll Garner, Woody Herman.
SATURDAY: Max Roach- Clifford Brown Quintet: Harold Land, Richard Powell, George Morrow; Marian McPartland Trio: Jimmy McPartland, Joe Morello, Bill Crowe; Bob Brookmeyer, Al Cohn, Ruby Braff; Dinah Washington: Accompanied by the Max Roach – Clifford Brown Quintet; Chet Baker Quartet: Russ Freeman, Jack Lawler, Peter Littmann; Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh (joining Chet Baker); Wild Bill Davidson, Buzzy Drootin, Vic Dickenson, Pee Wee Russell, George Wein, Milt Hinton; Dave Brubeck: Paul Desmond, Joe Hodge, Bob Bates; Finale: Clifford Brown, Chet Baker, Jimmy McPartland, Ruby Braff, Wild Bill Davison, Warne Marsh, Lee Konitz, Paul Desmond, Al Cohn, Pee Wee Russell, Vic Dickenson, Bob Brookmeyer, Marian McPartland, Milt Hinton, Max Roach.
SUNDAY: Duke Ellington – Narrator; The Modern Jazz Quartet: John Lewis, Percy Heath, Milt Jackson, Connie Kay; Lester Young, Jo Jones, Buck Clayton; Count Basie; Gerry Mulligan: Dave Brubeck, Paul Desmond, Joe Hodge, Bob Bates, Bobby Hackett, Kai Winding, J.J. Johnson, Ben Webster, Johnny Smith, Billy Taylor, Jo Jones, Percy Heath, Bud Shank, Peanuts Hucko; Count Basie and his Orchestra: Marshall Royal, Billy Graham, Frank Wess, Frank Foster, Charlie Fowlkes, Joe Newman, Thad Jones, Reunald Jones, Wendall Culley, Henry Coker, Benny Powell, Bill Hughes, Ed Jones, Freddie Green, Sonny Payne, Joe Williams.
Robert Brownjohn (1925 – 1970) showed early artistic promise and in 1944 earned a place at the Institute of Design in Chicago, formerly known as the New Bauhaus by founder László Moholy-Nagy. Brownjohn became a protégé of Moholy-Nagy and much of the structural quality in Brownjohn's graphic design can be traced to his important influence. Upon graduation, Brownjohn initially worked as an architectural planner in Chicago before returning to the Institute of Design to teach.
Architectural Forum noted that he “may have been the most talented student ever to have graduated from Chicago's Institute of Design.” He personified the idea his teacher Laszlo Moholy-Nagy expressed in Vision in Motion, that art and life can be integrated: “The true artist is the grindstone of the sense; he sharpens his eye, mind and feeling; he interprets ideas and concepts through his own media.”
In 1950, Brownjohn moved to New York in order to pursue his graphic design career. Working freelance, he completed projects for a wide variety of clients including Columbia Records. Brownjohn's effusive personality and fondness for jazz music allowed friendships with Miles Davis and Charlie Parker, among others, to blossom as he became a part of the social scene in the city. Brownjohn also became addicted to heroin during this period. He was never to conquer this affliction and it contributed to his untimely death at the age of 44.
In 1957 Brownjohn opened Brownjohn, Chermayeff & Geismar (with Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Geismar) in New York City. The following year he designed the “Streetscape” display for the American pavilion at the World Exhibition in Brussels. The end of 1959 also saw the end of BCG. Brownjohn's drug use had escalated and he moved to London with his family in order, he hoped, to take advantage of the UK's more liberal attitude to drug use.
In 1960 Brownjohn left BCG to become the design director for McCann-Erickson Ltd. in London. While there, he designed the title sequences for numerous films, including the James Bond films Goldfinger and From Russia with Love. Brownjohn later returned to New York to teach at the Pratt Institute and the Cooper Union.
In his short but intense working life, Brownjohn left helped to redefine graphic design, to move it from a formal to a conceptual art. His projects exemplify every aspect of his relationship to design, including his emphasis on content over form and his preferences with ordinary and personal images. His spirit of invention and designs for living in the machine age were balanced with references to the aesthetic models that Moholy-Nagy admired.