Dean Frey

A sketch of Ella’s face; white on a brown background.

So Verve must’ve had a significant art budget.* In 1961 they commissioned none other than Henri Matisse for Ella Fitzgerald’s Harold Arlen Song Book, with Billy May. A two-record set, with arrangements by Billy May.

* I guess a strong dollar helped.

album.link/y/OLAK5uy_lM...

She's the GOAT. No discussion. Her songbooks are phenomenal.

Buffet in a heavy sheepskin coat, lighting a cigarette in a Paris bar.

I always knew Bernard Buffet was cool. The James Dean of French painters.

📷 Denise Colomb, 1950

My favorite version of But Not for Me. Stunning!

Semi-abstract representation of a desk, with pen, stationery & a clock.

Design of a hotel facade

Design of a bouquet of flowers, a bottle of Cognac & a glass

Design of a bedroom with a twin bed & bedspread

There were five LPs in the 1959 Verve box set Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Song Book. Bernard Buffet was commissioned to design album covers for all five.

Here are the other four.

I wonder how much Buffet received for this project.

Album cover Buffet’s painting of Ella’s face

Listening to a wonderful LP from 1959: Ella Fitzgerald Sings Gershwin.

Arrangements by Nelson Riddle; conceived & produced by Norman Granz.

Love the fabulous portrait by Bernard Buffet on the cover.

album.link/y/OLAK5uy_k-...

Album cover Buffet’s painting of Ella’s face

Listening to a wonderful LP from 1959: Ella Fitzgerald Sings Gershwin.

Arrangements by Nelson Riddle; conceived & produced by Norman Granz.

Love the fabulous portrait by Bernard Buffet on the cover.

album.link/y/OLAK5uy_k-...

Description: Luis and Alvaro Figuerroa with friends on the terrace of their home in Marbella, Spain.

Luis & Alvaro Figuerroa by Henry Clarke
Vogue, March 1968

Description: A equestrian scene: a crowd of people and horses in a paddock.

Raoul Dufy’s wonderful Vanity Fair cover
August 1934

Fascinating woman. Years ago I went to a dinner thing in Glasgow and she read from one of her books. Marvellous.

Caricature of Kael sitting in a movie theatre.

"I loved writing about things when I was excited about them. It's not fun writing about bad movies. I used to think it was bad for my skin."
- Pauline Kael

✏️ Pauline by David Levine

James, in an apron saying "Julia Child - The Way to Cook", brandishes a large knife on a large steak.

P. D. James channels Julia Child, with some extra menace of her own.
📷 Terry Smith for Life Magazine

James sits in her garden & reads the mystery

P. D. James reads Sayers’ Have His Carcase
📷 Michael Putland, 1982

"I had always enjoyed the genre - Dorothy L. Sayers was a potent influence - and I was fascinated by the challenge of trying to do something new with the well-worn conventions of the detective story."

James at her writing desk. She puts a long dagger to the page.

"When I heard, Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, I thought, Did he fall or was he pushed?"

P. D. James by Ulf Andersen, 1987

Today we're celebrating the great mystery writer's birthday 🎂

Closeup of James in black & white

P. D. James, Baroness James of Holland Park, by Nick Sinclair, 1992

"When you go to vote in the House of Lords there is a long corridor down which you walk & when I go down I often have people saying ‘shouldn’t you be off working on another novel?’."

James sits on a London park bench; a motion-blurred pigeon flies up in front of her.

P. D. James by Dudley Reed

Kingsley Amis called her “Iris Murdoch with murder”.

Painting of the writer leaning on a table, which contains her glasses, and a Victorian bust of a veiled woman.

Remembering P. D. James on her birthday 🎂
🎨 Michael Taylor
oil on canvas, 1996

"I came to believe that it is perfectly possible to remain within the constraints & conventions of the genre & be a serious writer."

The queen with bright red curls. She has an elaborate headdress, and jewelled tears on her cheeks.

Vali Myers
Dido, 1973-74

The figure of Myers looking out, with many other smaller versions of herself throughout the drawing.

Vali Myers
Hotel Schatz, 1955

This self-portrait drawing was once owned by George Plimpton.

The two stand together, wearing the latest Swinging London outfits.

Donovan & Vali Myers by David Redfern, 1966

Myers in a corduroy top, hand to her head, looking directly into the camera.

Vali Myers by Norman Ikin, Melbourne, c. 1959

Book cover Saint Germain des Prés Paris 1951 Ed van der Elsken Myers in a white turtleneck sweater reflected in a mirrored pane of glass.

Vali Myers featured in Ed van der Elsken's 'Love on the left bank', published first by Picture Post in 1954, & later that year as the book Saint Germain des Prés.

Closeup of Myers with her eyes down-turned, and a cigarette hanging from her mouth.

Greco in an almost identical shot

Ed van der Elsken
Vali Myers with cigarette, Paris, 1953

and next to it:

Juliette Gréco by Sam Lévin (undated, though my guess is around 1950)

A popular look in Saint-Germain-des-Prés at the time!

Myers stands next to Van Elsken, who shoots them both in a plate glass window.

Ed van der Elsken
Self-Portrait on the Street With Vali Myers
Paris, 1952

In 1949 Myers left Melbourne to become a dancer in Paris. She took up with the great Dutch photographer Ed van der Elsken, who featured her in many of his works.

The older Myers, with the same red hair, dark eye makeup, & tattoos.

Vali Myers by Eva Collins, 2001

The Australian artist squeezed an awful lot of art & living into her 73 years, 1930-2003.

Myers with long red hair, wearing a green sweater

Remembering Vali Myers on her birthday 🎂
📷 Ed van der Elsken

“I’ve never made any plans. I don’t understand why people want to get some sort of insurance on life. Nothing lasts forever. I’m disintegrating and I’ve never felt better.”

Album cover Tony Bennett Perfectly Frank Tony in a white tuxedo, in front of a photo of Sinatra (in his own white tuxedo) performing with a small jazz group.

From Tony Bennett's 1992 album Perfectly Frank, "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square". Tony sings the rarely heard verse!

With Ralph Sharon, piano, Paul Langosch, bass, & Joe LaBarbera, drums

youtube.com/watch?v=wzMe...

The great portrait on the cover is by E. J. Camp

Arlen at the keyboard; Tony sings behind him

Tony Bennett with Harold Arlen, September 17, 1963.

Arlen once said, "Don't waste your energy on the ugly. Save it for the beautiful."

Remembering beautiful Tony...

"Right as the Rain", with Yip Harburg's great lyrics

youtube.com/watch?v=duWW...

Tony in a striped short-sleeved shirt, arms crossed.

A great portrait of Tony Bennett by Eve Arnold, from 1950

"The more Tony goes on, the more he understands that what you leave out is important.”
- Scott Simon

"The Way You Look Tonight"
youtube.com/watch?v=Foll...

A smiling Bennett in an overcoat & red scarf, proudly standing next to Miss Piggy at the parade

Tony Bennett has had some glamorous partners over the years: Judy Garland, Amy Winehouse, Lady Gaga, Norah Jones. But this is the peak: with Miss Piggy at the Macy’s Day Thanksgiving Parade
📷 Eric Liebowitz, 2016