The Francis Wolff Collection | Fine Art Photography From The Finest In Jazz
The Francis Wolff Collection is a series of one-of-a-kind limited edition fine art photography collector’s pieces from The Finest In Jazz that celebrates Francis Wolff’s legacy and that of the musicians he loved.
HIGH-DEFINITION CRADLED METAL PRINT WITH CUSTOM ACRYLIC EMBOSSMENT
LIMITED EDITION OF 15High-Definition Cradled-Aluminum Archival Pigment Print encased in a Deluxe Shadowbox with Museum Acrylic and a Custom Acrylic Embossment. Each print is Hand-Numbered with a Serialized Collection Badge on verso and includes a Certificate Of Authenticity.
BLUE TRAIN FRAMED DIPTYCH
LIMITED EDITION OF 100Archival Pigment Print on 290 GSM Moab Entrada Fine Art Paper encased in Custom Matting and Frame. Includes unique Album Credits, Blue Note Certified Authentic Holographic Badging and a numbered Certificate Of Authenticity.
ARCHIVAL FINE ART PRINTS
LIMITED EDITION | FRAMED & UNFRAMED
Archival Pigment Print on 300 GSM Hahnemühle Acid Free Fine Art Paper. Each print is Hand-Numbered and Embossed, and includes a Certificate Of Authenticity.
BLUE TRAIN LITHOGRAPH PRINT SET
LIMITED EDITION OF 300Six Archival Pigment Prints on 100# Silk-Stock Acid Free Fine Art Paper in LP Jacket Record Sleeve. Includes a Certificate Of Authenticity.
Francis Wolff was a commercial photographer in his native Berlin before he escaped on the last boat out of Nazi-controlled Germany bound for America in late 1939. Arriving in New York City, Wolff joined his childhood friend and fellow jazz enthusiast Alfred Lion who had just founded a small independent jazz label called Blue Note Records. Soon, Wolff was bringing his camera to recording sessions and jazz clubs where he’d capture intimate portraits of the musicians at work, and over the next three decades he steadily built one of the greatest collections of jazz photography of all-time.
Over his career Wolff photographed a true Who’s Who of Jazz history capturing iconic images of legends including Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Horace Silver, Art Blakey, Jimmy Smith, Dexter Gordon, Grant Green, Lou Donaldson, Donald Byrd, Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, McCoy Tyner, Ornette Coleman, and many more. His remarkable photographs were featured in countless Blue Note album cover designs by the visionary graphic designer Reid Miles who used Wolff’s images to striking effect.
In recent decades, thanks to the tireless dedication of the collection’s longtime caretaker Michael Cuscuna of Mosaic Images, Wolff’s photographs have begun to be recognized as works of art themselves. With the collection now owned once again by Blue Note Records, we are working to preserve and reveal even more of this remarkable archive which includes more than 20,000 black & white and color images taken between 1940-1970.
JOHN COLTRANE - BLUE TRAIN
On September 15, 1957, John Coltrane went into Rudy Van Gelder’s living room studio in Hackensack, New Jersey and recorded his first great masterpiece: Blue Train. The fulfillment of a handshake deal Coltrane made with Alfred Lion, it would be the legendary saxophonist’s sole session as a leader for Blue Note Records, a locomotive album fueled by the bluesy title track that featured a dynamic sextet with Lee Morgan on trumpet, Curtis Fuller on trombone, Kenny Drew on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums. Blue Train established Coltrane as a force of nature and set him on a course towards becoming one of the most revered and influential jazz artists of all-time.