Jazz Portraits Part 2

Part 1 | Part 2

I got my start drawing superheroes, but music has always been my true inspiration. I've worked as a designer and illustrator for several advertising agencies and music labels & as an art director as well for high profile music-related projects, including creating posters for Jazz Appreciation Month, The Newport Jazz Festival, The Jacksonville Jazz Festival and creating jazz album covers for artists such as Christian McBride, Kevin Eubanks, and Wynton Marsalis. My first children's book, Birth of The Cool: How Miles Davis Found His Sound, was published by Page Street Books in 2019 and received a starred review from Kirkus. I was born and raised in Staten Island, father to two magnificent boys (whom I call affectionately my "two knuckleheads") and I still live and work in New York, surrounded by books, my jazz vinyl collection & my favorite Spider-Man, Batman and Black Panther action figures.

This second set of portraits represents illustrations going back as far as the '90s (the Miles Davis image) all the way up to last year (Archie Shepp, Ahmad Jamal). I find painting, drawing and sketching these great musicians endlessly fascinating because of how the music of a particular artist hits me. So always in search of new ways to portray them—the spontaneity, the inventiveness.

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