A few weeks ago on the Halloween edition of my Sunday Jazz series I featured a track from Blues for Dracula (Riverside Records RLP 12-282), so today I’m sharing the rather campy but memorable album cover. Blah!

That’s Mr. Jones himself in full vampire regalia. Despite the rather jokey album cover, the music is fairly serious, straightforward jazz. Well, except for the rather comical Dracula-esque dialogue in the title cut. But elsewhere it’s a solid set of straight bop.

I don’t have any information on who took the photo for Blues for Dracula, but the info from the recording session is well-known. All five songs from the album were recorded in New York City on September 17, 1958 with the following personnel:

• Nat Adderley, cornet
• Julian Priester, trombone
• Johnny Griffin, tenor saxophone
• Tommy Flanagan, piano
• Jimmy Garrison, bass
• Philly Joe Jones, drums & narration