Buffalo Man

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Buffalo Man is the name of the silhouette-character featured on most of the covers of Jamiroquai's releases.

Contents

[edit] Origins

Buffalo Man was created sometime prior to the release of their 1992 single When You Gonna Learn, allegedly it was originally sketched by the band's primary songwriter and front-man Jason Kay as Buffalo Man is seemingly a self portrait silhouette of Jason wearing a buffalo hat. The mark has been used on almost every commercial (and sometimes non-commercial) release of the band's output in some form or another; usually the unique symbol is pictured unaltered, but there have been times where it is shown in a stylised manner to suit the artwork or song.

[edit] Notable Variations

Over the years, Buffalo Man has seen some temporary changes or interesting thematic uses:

[edit] Space Cowboy, The Return of the Space Cowboy

For the single Space Cowboy, Buffalo Man is present on the cover as a shaped cigarette paper for a half-complete cannabis joint, in reference to the song's praise of the drug.

[edit] Virtual Insanity, Travelling Without Moving

For the single of Virtual Insanity, Buffalo Man appears in the place of the Ferrari horse in an homage to Jason's love of sports cars. For the album cover to Travelling Without Moving, the artwork is similar, but takes on an embossed effect and is seen on a metal grille.

[edit] Cosmic Girl, Everyday

For these two releases, Buffalo Man is pictured with a star over his heart and two intersecting orbital rings.

[edit] Synkronized

While the design remained fundamentally unaltered, Buffalo Man has been turned into a laser-cut mirror and photographed from interesting angles by Midori Tsukagoshi. For the disc itself, no ink has been used on the character, but the same stone background found on the front cover has been used for the rest of the disc, thus allowing the consumer to recreate the photographed effect.

[edit] Text logo

The regular text logo.
The regular text logo.
The text logo as seen on the cover of A Funk Odyssey and its singles. Note the slight vertical stretch.
The text logo as seen on the cover of A Funk Odyssey and its singles. Note the slight vertical stretch.

Just like the Buffalo Man, the Jamiroquai text logo has also had several variations depending on the theme. The oldest version of the logo is the one seen on the Acid Jazz Records release of When You Gonna Learn. In comparison to the current text logo one can see that the old Acid Jazz Records version of the logo was more angular at points, together with the letters being much thinner. Several variations of the current logo also exist. Releases of "Cosmic Girl" and the promo CD of Everyday had replaced the dots above the 'i' letters with stars. Other slight, temporary variations include a slight vertical stretch of the typeface, as seen on the cover art of A Funk Odyssey.

[edit] Images

[edit] External links

 v  d  e  Jamiroquai
Members: Jason Kay | Rob Harris | Paul Turner | Matt Johnson | Derrick McKenzie | Sola Akingbola | Lorraine McIntosh | Hazel Fernandez | Sam Smith
Former members: Gavin Dodds | Simon Katz | Nick Fyffe | Stuart Zender | Simon Carter | Toby Smith | Nick Van Gelder | Darren Galea (DJ D-Zire) | Winston Rollins | Adrian Revell | Wallis Buchanan | Beverley Knight
See also: Band logos | Chillington studio | Iroquois | Gig in the Sky
Discography
Studio albums
Emergency on Planet Earth (1993) | The Return of the Space Cowboy (1994/1995) | Jazzmatazz, Vol. 2: The New Reality (Guest appearance) (1995) | Travelling without Moving (1996/1997) | Synkronized (1999) | A Funk Odyssey (2001) | Dynamite (2005)
Compilation albums
Jay's Selection (1996) | In Store Jam (promo, 1997) | Late Night Tales: Jamiroquai (2003/2005) | High Times: Singles 1992-2006 (2006)
Box sets
L'Intégrale des Maxi-Singles (1994) | The Single Box (1997) | The Singles Collection (1997) | Deeper Underground (1998) | 1999 Remixes (1999) | ULBC (Fanmade) (??)
Unofficial live recordings (ROIOs)
If I Like it, I do it (1993) | BBC 528 (1993) | Stockholm '93 (1993) | Club Citta '93 (1993) | Songs for Manitú (1993) | Firenze [sic] 1993 (1993) | Funky Paradise (1994) | JAZZiroquai (1995) | ...
DVDs
Live In Verona (2002/2003) | High Times: Singles 1992-2006 (2006)
Singles
When You Gonna Learn | Too Young to Die | Blow Your Mind | Emergency on Planet Earth | Space Cowboy | Half the Man | Stillness in Time | Light Years | The Kids | Do U Know Where You're Coming From? (Guest appearance) | Virtual Insanity | Cosmic Girl | Alright | High Times | Deeper Underground | Canned Heat | Black Capricorn Day | Supersonic | King for a Day | I'm in the Mood for Love (Guest appearance) | Little L | You Give Me Something | Love Foolosophy | Corner of the Earth | Main Vein | Feels Just Like It Should | Seven Days in Sunny June | (Don't) Give Hate a Chance | Runaway
Promotion-only / Cancelled / White label singles
Revolution 1993 | If I Like It I Do It | Morning Glory | Everyday | Travelling Without Moving | Hollywood Swingin' | Soul Education | An Online Odyssey | Feel So Good | Do It Like We Used To Do | Bad Girls | Dynamite | Starchild | Electric Mistress | Time Won't Wait | Emergency on Planet Earth & Blow Your Mind remixes | Talullah (Shelter mixes) | Multiquai