I also went to the Lustig exhibit at the AIGA this past weekend, and one of my favorite pieces there was a book cover done by Elaine Lustig Cohen for Meridian Books for “The Book of Jazz,” published in 1958.
I really enjoy the simplicity in using the J pattern to create the abstract design on the cover. By altering the scale and color, the J often remains recognizable as a letter (reinforcing the “Jazz” theme of the book), but in other instances become a pattern that appears much less typographic in nature. The colors are vibrant and both show the play of overlap between the letters and create a stark contrast against the white of the background. The J’s also lead the eye well around the page – the top one frames and points to the title, and as one follows the design down the page it curves down to the subtitle. The asymmetry of the design also gives it more interest and helps to draw the viewer in. Although she manipulates the J’s significantly in both scale and the design remains clean and geometric; the only curves seen are from the lower part of the J and the upper half of the J and all the type on the page are either horizontal and vertical. The main text is in a black san serif typeface, making it stand out from the colors in the design. Both the typeface and the design are very bold in their clarity.
This to Then 
You are keying in on the big thing; the J as form. It’s interesting that a J is less like a typographic character (at least in its Capital sans-serif form) that other capital letters. I know this a little because of my name, but it’s clearly articulated here, where as you point out, the pieces of the J almost completely lose their typographic identity. This leads to the question of whiter that conceit (using form from a letter that in this case connects to the subject/title). It’s possible that it doesn’t matter and the abstraction simply benefits from the constraint to this specific modulated curving structure that is derived from the design problem. This is clearly a major tenant of “modern design”, but in this case used to what end?
The things that makes this work for me is the orange purple relation and then the overprinting of colors (and those two knock out moments) where the shapes overlap. There is a wonderful lack of bowing to order within all this locking up and alignment that makes this certainly relate to jazz.
>>The asymmetry of the design also gives it more interest and helps to draw the viewer in.
be careful with statements like this. You can say it, but then you have to explain what you mean. Asymmetry creating more interest and drawing in viewing is certainly not a given.