Friday, May 3, 2013

¡A Gozar! A Cuban Album Cover Blog Gallery

The other day I was discussing with a Cuban-American friend the fact that there are some great album covers of Cuban and Cuban-derived music from the good old days out there. We were saying how inspiring some of these designs are and how the old-time "paste-up" designers did so much with so little - this was before computers - and that especially the simplest, most graphic and illustrational styles seemed the freshest to our jaded eyes. We also discussed the fact that although these designs originally were created to sell a commercial product and were seen as mass-produced items of entertainment and nothing more, we recognize that they have stood the test of time and are infused with nostalgia and culture - and would make some lovely wall art for public viewing! Here then is a "blogallery" of a small fraction of my favorite covers from my collection that inhabit that enchanted realm of classic Cuban dance music from a bygone era; and also thrown in are a few more recent covers from the 70s & 80s that have food, and Miami art-deco style, as their subject matter (you guessed it, my friend who I was discussing these matters with is a talented chef who owns a Cuban restaurant and is a Miami transplant to New York, so I figured I'd share some of that stuff with you too). My apologies for the "bongohead.blogspot" watermark on each cover, but I didn't want to provide a free stock library of images for people to use for their own content. ¡A gozar! Enjoy!