Richard Mantel is alive and well in New York
Richard Mantel, the bandit on the lower right, and I had lunch last week. Richard is an artist and a designer who spent years as an art director with Columbia Records in the sixties and seventies. We’ve been friends for many years. Around the time I met Richard, I was working with George Wein, who had this record over the fireplace behind his desk. Richard has also been the designer of all the beautiful Mosaic Records sets since that company began reissuing those amazing box sets of Blue Note, Commodore, Keynote and other label’s back catalogs. One of Richard’s most famous covers is Thelonious Monk “Underground” for which he won a Grammy award for best record cover design in 1969.



(48 votes, average: 4.71 out of 5)

June 13th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Is this the same George Wein who founded the Newport Jazz Festival??
Just curious…
June 13th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
You bet!
June 14th, 2008 at 8:51 am
wow, he’s the man! by the way, i’m alive an’ well here in brazil too
August 23rd, 2010 at 12:06 pm
He’s now alive and well and living in cleveland.