Ira Gitler's First LP Liner Notes

At the dawn of the jazz LP era in the early 1950s, Ira Gitler worked for Prestige Records. As anyone who has owned a jazz LP knows, Ira has written the liner notes to hundreds of albums, including updates to his original notes in the CD and download eras. In short, Ira was among the first to hear many of the recordings we enjoy today and wrote about them for their album jackets. Here's a section from Ira's introduction to Prestige Records: The Album Cover Collection (Concord Editions):

“Blue Note and Prestige--both recording some of the most notable jazz of the times--were a study in contrast in several ways. Blue Note, run by Alfred Lion and Frank Wolff, had in Wolff an accomplished photographer with an innate feeling for the personalities of the musicians. Furthermore, Blue Note employed freelance design specialists to make good use of Wolff's images. Prestige, on the other hand, had me...

“Without any delusions of being an art director I supplied the same firm that did the labels for our 78s as to where I wanted the musician's name, the names of the songs and the album number, etc. to be placed, and how big each type-face should be...

“Photos with primitive type layouts became the norm, but there were still a few strictly, type-only covers that showed up... The back covers were blank for the first few releases... With PRLP 117, Swingin' With Zoot Sims (1951), the first set of liner notes appeared on a Prestige back cover, written by yours truly, and my career as a designer was over. It was my first professional essay, but it didn't change my salary. 'I'll make you famous, man,' Prestige founder Bob Weinstock told me--and he was right."