1957 jazz pianist Dean Fontessa experiences his first rockabilly dance in Gary Scott Beatty’s “Jazz: Rockabilly” fiction, featured in the free online magazine MuskegonOnline.NET this month only.
The story, in Beatty’s modernist retro style, explores Dean’s take on the scene from his viewpoint as a cool jazz musician. “We all know rockabilly will lead to rock ‘n’ roll, but Dean has a hard time understanding this ‘sad sound,'” Beatty explained. “His doghouse friend tries to talk him through it, but Dean’s hung on Miles and Coltrane, dig?”
Find the story at the bottom right under the “Fiction” heading at http://muskegononline.net
Gary Scott Beatty’s “Jazz: Cool Birth,” a murder mystery in a 1957 jazz club with art and typography based on ’50s album cover design, earned him a Xeric Foundation Grant. He colors, letters and produces comic books and magazines for a diverse range of companies and has written for Comic Buyer’s Guide.
“Through study of album cover design, television program title artwork, and common illustrations used in everything from health booklets to instruction manuals from the ’50s, I attempt to pull readers into the late night jazz clubs of 1957, feeling the music through the visuals,” said Beatty.
“Ignoring paint and ink magazine illustration, a left over style from previous decades, I concentrate on the combination of flat and painterly used by artists working with T-squares and triangles, tracing paper, ruling pens and brush, preparing work for rotary letterpresses and similar hands-on intensive printing methods.”
Muskegon Online-dot-NET is Muskegon County, Michigan’s free, monthly, online magazine. Locally owned and produced, the new magazine approaches local experts for articles that can impact the community’s health, business and life.
“Jazz: Rockabilly” will be online to read through the month of March, 2012.
