Cubop

Abstract

Jazz and dance music parted ways after World War II, but it was at the nexus of the two genres that Cubop, that frenetic child of mambo, was formed. Machito’s Afro-Cuban Jazz, with its deceptively simple cover designed by David Stone Martin, set the tone for the genre, with a declamatory pair of biracial arms raised in ritual ecstasy set against a blood red background of dynamic soundwaves, the perfect metaphor for the profound fusion at the heart of Latin jazz. Martin’s intense linear aesthetic was soon adopted by other designers, as illustrated by the stark rendering and dynamic cropping on albums for Pete Terrace, Sabu Martinez, and the Cal Tjader Quintet. In fact, over a ten year stretch beginning in 1954, Tjader had the most visually engaging string of albums of any Latin musician. As the historian Robert Farris Thompson has noted, “Tjader’s album covers were a jump ahead in terms of artistic quality, consistently better than anything ... ever seen in Latin jazz. In those days the liner notes were the only literature we had to learn about the music and who was creating it, and Cal’s were fantastic. They were more than just records, they were like cultural guides.”