Jazz Fest Poster 2010

by Anthony Benedetto (Tony Bennett)

The Jazz Festival Poster - torchbearer of the all but lost art of poster making in this multi-media age - has gone through two broad transformations since its introduction in 1975. With this release, the poster is recreated anew. But there's a timelier New Orleans reinvention story to tell before describing that one.

2010 marks the centennial year of Louis Prima's birth. Prima's contributions to the American music scene are measured by the decade. In the 1930's he took his New Orleans trumpet and vocal style to New York and Los Angeles where, with his New Orleans Gang, he helped define an era. Prima wrote Sing, Sing, Sing, the Swing Era anthem immortalized in Benny Goodman's later cover. The success of the Big Band sound led Prima to form a 22-piece orchestra that regularly topped the Big Band Era charts of the 40's, many with Italian-American themes that exulted in his roots.

Big Bands having faded by the 50's, Prima moved to Las Vegas were he fashioned the Witnesses with New Orleans' great tenor saxophonist Sam Butera and defined yet another music scene. That band's shuffle beat combined with its New Orleans jazz roots laid the foundation for early Rock & Roll. Prima relaunched his recording career in 1957 with Just a Gigolo / I Ain't Got Nobody; two songs that Prima combined so successfully that Van Halen's David Lee Roth had a hit with Prima's joinder in 1985. In 1958 Prima won the first Vocal Category Grammy for That Old Black Magic. In 1966 he gave voice to King Louis in Disney's The Jungle Book, the album of which went gold.

In 1982 Sing Sing Sing was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, followed in 1999 by his 1957 album The Wildest. During his five-decade career he recorded nearly 800 songs and was a regular on The Ed Sullivan Show where he showcased the incredible talent of Butera, Keely Smith and Gia Maione. Even after his passing in 1975, Louis Prima still spins gold: The Louis Prima Capital Collectors Series compilation CD went gold in 2008 - and top the charts: His Live From Las Vegas hit the BillBoard Top Jazz Album chart in 2005. If you don't know Prima, you No Capicia.

Although we can't match the reinventive force of Louis Prima, 2010 also marks the launch of the third generation Jazz Festival Poster Series: The Musical Artist as Visual Artist. Graphic artists creating mostly imaginary scenes dominated the first generation of the series in the 1970's and 80's, followed from 1989 through the 2000's by painters depicting New Orleans music legends, harkening back to our celebration of legendary grand marshals in the first two posters. We now turn to artists whose talents are not bounded by a single medium and who bring a heightened level of understanding to the subject.

The world knows Tony Bennett as a peerless interpreter of the American songbook. His singing career just entered its sixth decade and he's garnered 15 Grammy Awards, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. His 2009 Jazz Fest performance thrilled the cognoscenti and brought yet another generation into the embrace of his dulcet vocal style. Yet as a child growing up in Queens, New York, he wanted to be a painter. He studied at what is now known as the School of Art and Design in Manhattan and continued with private studios and teachers. It's an open secret that art is as much a part of his life as music. No one could better capture Prima's five-decades in music than a man firmly rooted in the same traditions and experiences. The knowing quality of his Louis Prima portrait proves this.

Bennett paints under his family name of Benedetto. He lives out his visual passions through this alter ego: As Tony Bennett tours the world, Anthony Benedetto paints and sketches a rarified daily scene, from intimate musical gatherings to international cityscapes. The United Nations twice commissioned his artwork, including their 50th Anniversary "Peace", "Brotherhood" (purchased by Oprah Winfrey). Three Bennett originals are part of the Permanent Collection of the Smithsonian, including his portrait of Duke Ellington, which was recently accepted into the National Portrait Gallery. Bennett's work is also on permanent display at the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio and is part of the collection at the National Arts Club in New York.

His work graced the collections of the late Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra and contemporary artist Robert Rauschenberg and is owned by President Bill Clinton, Carol Burnett, Whoopi Goldberg, Donald Trump and Katie Couric, among a select few. The first book of his paintings, "Tony Bennett: What My Heart Has Seen" was released by Rizzoli in 1996 and his second, "Tony Bennett In the Studio" was published in 2007. At 83, he is a master of the arts and has earned the status of a living legend. For more information on Tony Bennett's artwork please visit www.benedettoarts.com. We're honored to present his eloquent portrait of his dear friend and colleague, the expressive Louis Prima, as the inaugural print in this new direction.

Tony Bennett's 2010 ReMarque Drawing:

On a visit to New Orleans in the late 1990's, Tony Bennett was taken by the timeless beauty of a vine-covered centuries-old brick wall lighted by an ancient gas lamp. He recorded this quintessential scene in a watercolor that he re-imagines more than a decade later as the pencil drawing for the ReMarque edition of 500 signed Jazz Fest posters. The scene recalls Bennett's impression of the city's simple elegance, while the lamp's flame symbolizes the bond between the artist and his subject as well as the eternal nature of New Orleans and its music.

All prints are limited edition numbered silk-screens produced on acid-free archival paper. Signed and Remarque prints are produced on 100% cotton rag museum-standard sheets. The C-Marque edition is printed on artist's canvas and selectively over-painted by Bennett / Benedetto, signed by him and estate stamped with Louis Prima's signature. The Remarque edition bears an individual hand drawing by the artist and is signed by him and estate stamped.

Due to the unique nature of this print and the extensive performance commitments of the artist, the edition structure has been altered from prior years: One-third fewer Signed prints, one-third fewer Remarque prints and one-sixth fewer C-Marques are being produced compared to prior years.

Editions:

12,500 numbered posters, 23" x 35", $69;

2,000 Artist-signed & numbered prints, 24" x 37", $295;

500 Remarqued, signed, stamped & numbered prints, 25" x 39", $795;

300 C-Marque, signed, stamped and Over-painted numbered canvasses, 26" x 40" (unstretched size), $995.