{"product_id":"ray-ventura-collegiens-decca-1932","title":"Ray Ventura Collegiens 1932 | French Jazz Concert Poster","description":"\u003cp\u003eA near-abstract white figure stands at the centre of the sheet, arms raised in a conductor's gesture, legs planted wide. The form is simplified almost to a silhouette, bald-headed, faceless in the conventional sense, yet unmistakably alive with movement. Behind it, a crowd of white line-drawn jazz musicians fills the warm gradient ground: brass players, banjo, double bass, tuba, rhythm section figures arranged in a loose arc. The palette descends from deep burgundy-rose at the top to pale apricot at the foot, the gradient giving the composition its warm, enveloping quality. At the base, the Art Deco lettering takes over: RAY VENTURA in large stepped vermilion red with black shadow, ET SES COLLEGIENS in condensed black below, and SUR DISQUES DECCA EXCLUSIVITE in spaced caps at the very foot.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRay Ventura (1908–1979) formed his Collégiens orchestra in the late 1920s, recording first for Columbia and Odéon before signing with Decca in December 1931. The Decca years, running to early 1935, produced around 130 recorded sides and coincided with the band's rise to national prominence in France. The notation 'la Martinière .32' visible in the top-left corner of this lithograph dates the poster to 1932, placing it within the early, high-energy phase of the Decca period. Ventura was later described by Downbeat magazine as 'the Glenn Miller of France': a bandleader who brought American swing rhythms into French popular culture at a moment when the two traditions were still negotiating their relationship.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe poster's graphic language belongs firmly to French Art Deco commercial design: the reduced figure, the gradient ground, the bold geometric type with stepped shadow. It shares the visual vocabulary of the best Parisian entertainment advertising of the early 1930s, produced when French graphic designers were among the most inventive in the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eReproduced from the original 1932 lithograph using the giclée process on 200gsm Enhanced Matte Fine Art Paper with pigment-based archival inks. Available in multiple sizes.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Vintage Poster Archives","offers":[{"title":"A4","offer_id":64053787984249,"sku":"VPA-13854-A4","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"A3","offer_id":64053788017017,"sku":"VPA-13854-A3","price":29.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"A2","offer_id":64053788049785,"sku":"VPA-13854-A2","price":34.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"50x70cm","offer_id":64053788082553,"sku":"VPA-13854-50x70cm","price":39.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"A1","offer_id":64053788115321,"sku":"VPA-13854-A1","price":44.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"70x100cm","offer_id":64053788148089,"sku":"VPA-13854-70x100cm","price":59.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"A0","offer_id":64053788180857,"sku":"VPA-13854-A0","price":69.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0994\/1139\/4937\/files\/Music-RayVentura-Collegiens-LaMaziniere-Decca-1930s.jpg?v=1785004540","url":"https:\/\/vintageposterarchives.com\/products\/ray-ventura-collegiens-decca-1932","provider":"Vintage Poster Archives","version":"1.0","type":"link"}