Miles Davis - Rubberband EP & LP
This job came out of the blue from Warner Brothers. It was originally for my best friend JL who worked for Warners on a regular basis but after his sudden passing away as a tribute to him they commissioned me. We looked at several of Miles original paintings and chose these ones featured on the sleeves. We then found the classic shot of Miles which I used on the inner bag. The whole job was a delight to work on and I hope I did my old mate proud.
Jazz Warriors - Out of many one people
This was the first unofficial video I ever made. I shot in on a super 8 camera myself during a photosession with Peter Ashworth and the Jazz Warriors. I then managed to find some downtime in Island video editing suite and cut it together. Nobody made Jazz films at the time and it went down really well. In fact MTV wanted to show it but the musicians union managed to block it as they insisted all the musicians would have to be paid a flat fee by the record company and seeing that there were 16 of them and it was Jazz music, it didn't happen.
For the record sleeve we created a contemporary art piece using african masks and musical instruments. Peter's dramatic lighting brought thing to life.
Andy Sheppard - Twee
I consider myself extremely fortunate to have shot the record cover for 'Introductions in the dark' with legendary photographer Herman Leonard an American photographer with his own unique style of working. His whole approach was about making the artist feel relaxed and setting an atmosphere. We started out by having a buffet lunch at a friends house in Notting Hill. Then when Andy who was quite shy was relaxed the work began. Herman asked Andy's girlfriend to sit next to the camera and using only one light source and reflectors Herman shot away. You'll notice Herman's trademark in his iconic Jazz photographs was the smoking cigarette which even though Andy didn't smoke, he obliged by holding it in his hand.
Courtney Pine - Zaire
Having got into the super 8 vibe I managed to get a small budget and employ top camera man Tim Maurice Jones ( Lock Stock & Snatch) to film with me. The theme was Sunday morning rooftop London. I chose Notting Hill and the location and got asked friends including the some Jazz dancers to participate. It was very funny because as the dancers were doing their thing, suddenly an attic door opened and the owner of the flat popped his head out. He was pretty upset as it sounded like WW3 had broken out above him and he was trying to get some sleep!
Courtney Pine - Sacrifice
Once again shot on super 8 I decided to open it up and chose different locations around London. In particular we filmed in the long tunnel under Hyde park where we used a giant trolly and with Courtney seated on it pushed it up and down the tunnel at speed with Courtney blasting out his saxophone. It didn't take long before we were chased out of the place by NCP carpark security but managed to get the shot I wanted. I also used Mike Prior as a photographer and he let us built a couple of sets in his studio.
Antilles Jazz
I'd met contemporary sculpture Tom Dixon who at the was making incredible sculptures from found materials. Island had just set up a Jazz label run by Rob Partridge. I asked Tom to create a Jazz sculpture with the intention of using it as the house bag and main promo image for the label. Photographed by Peter Ashworth the result was outstanding.
