Love and Understanding

Don Schlitten was born 1932 in the Bronx where he still resides to this day. Although he aspired to be a musician himself, he ultimately settled on becoming a commercial artist and attended Music and Art High School in Harlem. His classmates included jazz pianist Freddie Redd and several founding members of Mad magazine. He produced his first recording session in 1957 for former Charlie Parker bandmate Red Rodney in 1957. From the late 1950s through the 1980s he produced and/or supervised over 300 albums in addition to photographing the artists and designing the album covers.