Around January of 1956, Francis Wolff met Reid Miles, a commercial artist who was a devout classical music fan. They established a rapport. Beginning with Blue Note's ninth 12-inch album, Reid Miles became the designer for the label for the next eleven years. He relied on Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff to describe the mood and intent of each album and then created wonderful graphic covers that were different from each other, but still maintained an indefinable Blue Note book.

Author's note: This book is not intended as a discography, just some more essential Blue Note sleeves. All illustrations are taken from actual covers, most being original covers, most being original issues, which accounts for why some are not pristine.

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