Jazz

It pains me to rank the Jazz logo this high. Nothing personal, Mormons. It’s just that the current design is both highly derivative and worse than the old one — two factors that have greatly contributed to the low rankings given to other logos.

As most people know, a team named after what could be considered the defining African-American pop culture contribution of the 20th century did not originate in Salt Lake City. No, the Jazz franchise began in New Orleans and relocated to Utah in 1979 after financial trouble, arena complications and fan disinterest made staying untenable.

So Utah inherited an inappropriate team name, logo and colors — purple, green and gold being emblematic of Mardi Gras. But this actually worked out swimmingly for all involved as, according to legend, it was watching the images of the 7′4″, heavenly* bearded Jazz center, Mark Eaton, block shots like a madmen that inspired known basketball aficionado and singer/songwriter Prince to record Purple Rain.

Despite this, Utah execs eventually felt that the franchise needed a reboot. In 1996, the team decided to abandon its iconic music note image and, instead, brazenly rip off the exact concept used by the only other NBA team that resides in the Rocky Mountains. As previously noted, the Denver Nuggets’ logo is far from perfect, but it is a solid option for a team named after gold nuggets and located in the state of Colorado. Gold was indeed mined heavily throughout the Rockies and, as evidenced by its array of world-renowned ski resorts and its capital city being nicknamed The Mile High City, the state of Colorado is the state that most Americans most associate with America’s most iconic mountain chain. So when the Nuggets adopted a redesigned mountain/giant block letter logo in 1993, it was at least conceptually logical, if not aesthetically beautiful.

Three years later in 1996, Jazz execs decided that they needed to similarly revamp their franchise. With three future Hall of Famers — John Stockton, Karl Malone and Jerry Sloan — the Jazz were as good as they had ever been on the court. Still, something else was needed. They needed a new logo. Not a new name though. Because why change that? It was too perfect. Jazz music was not native to Utah, sure, but ever since the Jazz franchise had moved to Utah, bebop, swing, fusion and the avant-garde movement had become an inextricable hallmark of Salt Lake culture.

Wait? What’s that you say? Dizzy, Bird, Miles, Cannonball and Trane hadn’t become beloved, adopted sons throughout Utah? Oh. News to me. Well, then, I guess I have no idea why Utah’s execs didn’t just change the team name and then base their new logo on whatever noun they chose. And you’re also telling me this was the best new logo they could come up with? Hmmm. That’s actually somehow even harder to believe. That thing looks like a color-by-number Girl Scout badge.

Fortunately, seven years later, Utah again realized it was time for change. Have no fear; they would continue to use an eerily similar mountain/giant block letter logo to that of their Rocky Mountain rivals, but, additionally, they would get rid of several unnecessary colors and lose the patently absurd motion lines/gradient on the lettering.

The result is their new, simple and attractive four-color logo, which, if you replaced the word “Jazz” with the word “Utah,” would make a really nice souvenir refrigerator magnet available for $3.99 in the Deer Valley Ski Resort Gift Shop.

The perfect stocking stuffer for Grandma.

* This was intended to appear as “heavily bearded,” but a typo resulted in “heavenly bearded.” Regardless of whether it was a Freudian slip or a Ouija board-type intervention by some bearded Nordic god, I’m not tempting fate and changing it. Those dudes have lightning.

Known Associates: Jazz, The NBA Logo Ranking Project

{ 2 comments }