LINKS
Tom Wilson at Wikipedia
Tom Wilson at AllMusic (by Richie Unterberger)
Transition Records Listing (incomplete)
••• compiled by Michael Fitzgerald at JazzDiscography.com
Motorengine Steve Stancell: Tom Wilson in three video minutes
Richard Vacca’s Troy Street blog: Posts about Wilson’s Transition Records label
••• Mar 25, 1931: Tom Wilson of Transition Records Born
••• March 13, 1955: Jazz in a Stable Recorded
••• May 7, 1956: Donald Byrd Blows on Beacon Hill
••• July 12, 1956: Tom Wilson Records Sun Ra on Transition
••• September 14, 1956: Cecil Taylor on Transition
Illustrations by the mysterious Harvey adorn the covers of some Wilson albums on Savoy.
UPDATE (July 2016): Harvey is now less of a mystery. A black man, Harvey (we still don’t know if that was his first or last name) was living in New York City in 1960, a struggling enrollee at the Art Student League. His mentor was a prominent artist named Ernest Fiene, who taught at the ASL. Harvey considered himself a surrealist, as reflected in his cover illustrations. How he became acquainted with Herman Lubinsky, founder/owner of Savoy, is unknown, but they might have met at an open-air market where Harvey sold his paintings. Thereafter, Lubinsky commissioned from Harvey artwork for dozens of Savoy covers in the label’s jazz, R&B, and gospel catalogs. Lubinsky provided information about each release to Harvey, who painted the covers, for each of which he was paid $25. Harvey eventually quit painting and became a funeral home director at his father-in-law’s business in the Bronx. Harvey passed away in 1986 or ’87 and is buried at the Calverton Military Cemetery on Long Island. This could be him.
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