The Ramsey Lewis Trio – More Sounds of Christmas (Cadet) album art
In October 1964, jazz pianist Ramsey Lewis (1934–2022) and his trio recorded their second album of Christmas music, More Sounds of Christmas (after Sound of Christmas in 1961). It was released by Argo Records, featuring a photographic cover by Don Bronstein. Shown here is a 1966 reissue by Cadet Records, with a different cover. Designed by Jerry Griffith, it depicts a tangram-like pattern made from four stylized rooftops with chimneys.
The title poses an existential type question: is this lettering based on a typeface? Or rather lettering based on lettering?
The calligraphic letterforms with strongly modulated strokes and traces of blackletter go back to Guy Oring and Paul Carlyle, who showed them in their lettering books published in the late 1930s. At some point between around 1958 and 1974, Filmotype adapted this unnamed alphabet for phototypesetting, under the name Yucca.
While Yucca stays close to the original, the manual interpretation on the album cover is more condensed and also omits the tendril-like flourishes with ball terminals. Carlyle & Oring’s design still shines through; from the characteristic construction of letters like M and R, to the extra-long descenders and the four-pointed star as i dot.
The unnamed alphabet with upper- and lowercase letters and numerals, plus two variations in a bold and a light condensed weight, shown by Paul Carlyle and Guy Oring in Learning to Letter, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1939
Detail
There are several digital interpretations of Carlyle & Oring’s alphabet (or of Yucca): Chaillot (Scriptorium, 1993) is fairly limited and has faux small caps in lieu of a lowercase. Magic Spell JF (Jason Walcott, 2007) and Kynges X NF (Nick’s Fonts, 2004) are more commendable options. The former takes more liberties. The latter stays closest to the source, but suffers from loose letterspacing.
The back cover is different in design, and carries over Columna (with Columna Solid) from the 1964 cover, complete with the two forms for the letter R. The liner notes by Louise D. Stone, jazz columnist for the Chicago Defender, the track list and credits are set in two weights of News Gothic.
2 Comments on “The Ramsey Lewis Trio – More Sounds of Christmas (Cadet) album art”
Filmotype Yucca looks similar to Filmotype Zingo
In line with what I wrote in response to your other comment regarding Museum Sans, I think that Zingo and Yucca are not entirely different, but they’re not similar enough to link them as related on the typeface pages, if that’s what you’re suggesting.
Yucca is sort of a “fantasy blackletter”, featuring details like the a with closed counter or the w with crossbar borrowed from textura designs, cf. Le Rosart or Goudy Text. Other characteristics are the tendril-like flourishes in the capitals, the extra-long descenders – either sweepingly curving, or sharp as daggers –, and the four-pointed star as i dot. None of this is found back in Zingo.