The Summer’s Coolest Stamp

The U.S. Postal Service returned some of the cool to snail mail when it issued a stamp celebrating jazz great, Miles Davis. Davis grew up near East Saint Louis, Illinois and is widely known as one of the great innovators in American jazz.

Village Photographer Christopher Hawkins

Like the collaborative style that defines the musical genre Davis popularized, his stamp does the same. For the first time, the U.S. Postal Service and La Poste of France worked together on a stamp. The agencies issued two stamps, featuring musical masters embraced in their homelands and also beloved in a foreign one. US Deputy Postmaster General Ronald Stromain said, “With our Miles Davis and Edith Piaf stamps, our goal is to encourage more people to learn about these artists and the unique form of musical diplomacy they practiced. Like the music of Miles and Edith and like the friendship between America and France, these stamps will last forever.

Miles Davis was born in Alton, Illinois where the town celebrates his legacy with an annual jazz festival. A life-sized statue of the icon will also be built in the heart of the town’s entertainment district.