# Discovering the cool: Creating a visual identity for Jazz Appreciation Month: Video

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2018/02/20/discovering-the-cool-creating-a-visual-identity-for-jazz-appreciation-month-video/
- Published: 2018-02-20T10:17:18+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**April is Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM), with a variety of events and programsthroughout
the museum and country designed to celebrate the past and stimulate the future of
the uniquely American style of music. Each year, the Smithsonian issues a poster
to celebrate JAM and honor a jazz master.**

This year, the JAM poster features composer-pianist Billy Strayhorn, whose legacy
is well-represented in the museum’s vast Duke Ellington Collection. The poster was
designed by the Brooklyn-based artist and jazz aficionado Keith Henry Brown. He 
also created the drawing for the 2011 JAM poster, featuring pianist and composer
Mary Lou Williams. Brown shared his thoughts on what jazz has meant to him and the
experience of creating posters for Jazz Appreciation Month.

It began for me at the drop of a needle and the first strain of “All Blues,” a track
on Miles Davis’ seminal record _Kind of Blue_. I was a music geek for most of my
young life, but never much delved into jazz, which seemed opaque and impossible 
to decipher. But there was something about the languid bass line and Miles’ fluid
trumpet on “All Blues” that drew me in. It was the image of jazz, _the cool_.

![Artistic rendering of a woman in front of a piano](https://i0.wp.com/americanhistory.
si.edu/sites/default/files/styles/blog_image/public/marylouwilliamsKHBrownAG365.
jpg?w=640&ssl=1 "Portrait of Mary Lou Williams. Courtesy of  Keith Henry Brown.")

**Portrait of Mary Lou Williams. Courtesy of Keith Henry Brown.**

_Kind of Blue_ features five supremely gifted musicians in addition to Davis—tenor
saxophonist John Coltrane, pianist Bill Evans (Wynton Kelly substitutes on one track),
alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Jimmy Cobb—
meshing their collective experience into something that was extraordinary and singular.
In my mind’s eye I could see them: a half-lit studio, cigarette smoke billowing.
I clung to this seductive world, and so began a lifelong love of this music.

Always drawing since childhood, I found jazz imagery becoming just as prominent 
as the superheroes that had dominated my numerous earlier sketchbooks.

![Outline sketch of woman in a dress seated in front of a piano](https://i0.wp.com/
americanhistory.si.edu/sites/default/files/styles/blog_image/public/mary-lou-williams_1.
jpg?w=640&ssl=1 "Sketch of Mary Lou Williams. Courtesy of Keith Henry Brown.")

**Sketch of Mary Lou Williams. Courtesy of Keith Henry Brown.**

In 2011, I received a call from the National Museum of American History. Would I
consider allowing them to purchase the rights to a painting I had posted online 
of the great jazz pianist Mary Lou Williams? I told them I would be honored. I was
ecstatic, but secretly, I wasn’t happy with that particular piece. I explained that
I had another painting of Williams that I wanted them to see. That weekend I quickly
drew what I thought was a better rendering and sent it in the following Monday. 
To my joy, it was accepted and became the 2011 JAM Poster.

![Side view of man with glasses, making an explanatory hand gesture](https://i0.
wp.com/americanhistory.si.edu/sites/default/files/styles/blog_image/public/billy-
strayhorn.jpg?w=640&ssl=1 "Sketch of Billy Strayhorn. Courtesy of Keith Henry Brown.")

**Sketch of Billy Strayhorn. Courtesy of Keith Henry Brown.**

I never forgot that happy experience. In 2014, I inquired about the opportunity 
to submit a second image for Jazz Appreciation Month. I was informed that this year’s
subject would be the brilliant jazz composer Billy Strayhorn. As before, I was asked
if I had an existing piece of Mr. Strayhorn. I mentioned that I did, yet I decided
to create a new picture. After doing a bit of research and reading David Hadju’s
book, _Lush Life_, I painted Mr. Strayhorn’s portrait. To my happiness, my image
was again chosen.

![Watercolor painting of African American man being completed](https://i0.wp.com/
americanhistory.si.edu/sites/default/files/styles/blog_image/public/1606227_10204291243737121_2748954124910729405_o.
jpg?w=640&ssl=1 "Working on the Strayhorn Poster. Courtesy of Keith Henry Brown.")

**Working on the Strayhorn Poster. Courtesy of Keith Henry Brown.**

The opportunities to create work for the JAM posters are among the highlights of
my career. Beginning with the first few notes I heard on _Kind of Blue_, I can think
of no more pleasurable a progression than to share my enthusiasm for jazz with young
people all over the world. My hope is that they, too, discover and embrace this 
wonderful music.

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