[GRAPHICS] [JAZZ] MARTIN, David Stone

"Music at Christmas and Christmas in music..." [Portfolio]

[Roosevelt, NJ: by the Author, c.1956]. Quarto (37cm). Printed card portfolio holding twelve lithographic plates, loose as issued. All lithographs are signed in plate; Martin has inscribed the portfolio, "Jean and Sol [Libsohn] / David," undated. Very mild external toning and soil; Near Fine. Inside of portfolio is printed with a holiday sentiment, and also a brief blurb from Alan Lomax commenting on the illustrations.

Scarce portfolio of lithographic prints reproducing Martin's illustrations for Alan Lomax's Mr. Jelly Roll, a biography of jazz pianist Jelly Roll Morton published in 1956. Issued without imprint, presumably printed as a Christmas gift to friends of the artist. This copy is inscribed to the photographer Sol Libsohn and his wife Jean, who were Martin's neighbors in Roosevelt, New Jersey, a WPA town founded in 1939 which, by the Fifties, had become a destination for artists, writers and musicians seeking refuge from (but proximity to) the New York art scene. Martin (1913-1992) was a noted mid-century illustrator, known best for his many jazz album covers for Folkways and Blue Note in the Fifties and Sixties. Of the present portfolio, we locate only a single copy in OCLC (Pitt), with no other example traced in commerce.

Price: $1,250.00

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