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Joe ‘King’ Oliver

Day 46
#88 – Joe ‘King’ Oliver (1885–1938). American jazz cornet player and bandleader. Recordings include: Dipper Mouth Blues (1923), Canal Street Blues (1923), Doctor Jazz (1926) and WaWaWa (1926).

I started with the initials – ‘KO’ – and seeing how I could work in the idea of ‘king’. By flipping the ‘K’ on its side it could represent a crown, but this spelt out ‘OK’. It is very graphic but didn’t represent Oliver. Changing the letters round didn’t work either, but when I looked at the colours and changed the typeface I realised the ‘O’ looked like the end of the trumpet with a ‘mute’ in the end. It is said that his recording ‘WaWaWa’ can be credited with giving the name wah-wah to such techniques.

1.5 hours

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One of the first ideas, working with ‘KO’…

Listen...

to excerpts from the album ‘St James Infirmary’

 
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45. David Murray

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47. Eric Dolphy