Mongo Santamaria – Feelin’ Alright album art
In my post about Haig Adishian’s cover design for Chick Corea’s Tones For Joan’s Bones, I had mentioned and shown the various contoured variants of Staudel Xenotype J, a series of Art Nouveau faces exclusively available from the phototypesetting studio Photo-Lettering, Inc. in New York City. The ones filled with a decorative pattern are named Staudel Gemutlich.
Adishian put these to use, too, for the 1970 album Feelin’ Alright by Cuban percussionist and bandleader Ramón “Mongo” Santamaría Rodríguez (1917–2003). Staudel Gemutlich came in two styles, A (horizontally striped top half, solid bottom half) and B (reversed), both of which were combined for the cover, and filled with different colors. The illustration is by Izzy Sanabria.
Back cover with liner notes by Ralph J. Gleason.
2 Comments on “Mongo Santamaria – Feelin’ Alright album art”
Thanks for the detailed research, Florian!
You’re most welcome, Chris! Piece by piece, we’re building an illustrated record of how the output of Photo-Lettering has formed the looks of pop culture in the second half of the 20th century, in the U.S. and beyond.