GROOVY

This third deck is a tribute to the Copenhagen Jazz Festival. Leo Scherfig's name is in the official list of poster designers for the festival and I found these two posters for the festival of 2012, in which year he was commissioned for the design of them. In the middle is the logo that Wikipedia showed with the article about of the festival. I'm not sure if it's still their official logo, but Leo's hand is all over it.

The deck was printed in the US by MPC on their finest M31 stock and published in a prototype edition of 50 decks in 2022. Exactly 10 years after the posters, a coincidence?
The courts show b/w portraits of some of the different jazz musicians that have played at the festival since it started in 1979. The key element in the designs of the posters and cards is the empty staff (US) or stave (UK) of 5 single lines, used for the notation of a piece of music. On the posters as well as in the deck they swerve and turn seemingly free, touching the essence of jazz.... improvisation. Notes bubble up as different sized circles.

 

The names of the artists are mentioned on the extra joker, but for those who have difficulty reading upside down here:
Hearts: king - Tony Allen, queen - Oumou Sangaré, jack - Mutatu Astatke.

 

The Ace of Clubs has the large suit sign and title of the deck.
The Ace of spades is less important here, the other aces are plain.

   

Clubs: king - Keith Jarret, queen - Anoushka Shankar, jack - Toets Thielemans.

 

 

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