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An all-timer for me:

R.I.P.

I'd think in terms of slugging percentage. Or even OPS. Definitely WAR!!!

RIP to an artist who kept on keeping on.

One of my favorite Sinatra albums.

Sad news, but what a life and career! If producers had a career batting average, his would flirt with .400. (Heck, it might be north of .400.)

LP 1 - originally released as Screamin' the Blues

FS: Roberta Flack - With Her Songs (2026 8 CD box set). Played once. $49 shipped to USA address. Please PM or email john.felser@verizon.net if interested.

RIP htts://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/willie-colon-legendary-nuyorican-salsa-icon-dies-at-75/6466393/

What a contributor! RIP

Dan, thank you for this somewhat detailed information regarding Don Schlitten. I have long been a great fan of Don Schlitten, especially his excellent work at Prestige and Xanadu. Whenever I saw Don's name on a record, I could be highly certain it would be one for me to purchase. It seemed clear that Don's musical taste and mine were very much aligned. I am happy to be able to say that the overwhelming majority of records that Don produced are on my shelves. R.I.P.

Gosh. What a great pity and what a contribution to the world of jazz Don Made. Thanks for letting us know Dan

R.I.P. to one of the great jazz producers.

Now listening to Joel Ross “Who are You?” Blue Note cd. One of my favorite current players. 270×270 13.2 KB

Will Vinson. Brent Jensen.

From Zev Feldman's FB: https://www.facebook.com/zev.feldman DON SCHLITTEN (1932-2026). Rest in peace. I'm very sad to report that my dear friend, the great Don Schlitten passed away at his home in Kingsbridge, NY on February 9th (just a month shy of his 94th birthday). You can read the full obituary from his daughter further below. Don to me was just an incredible figure in the history of this music known as jazz. In fact, I consider Don to be one of the great architects of jazz music. He was an advocate for the artists and was one of the greatest producers, photographers, album designers, record label executives, and more. He loved this music more than anything and I think about how folks like Lester Young had a magical effect on him. I considered him a friend, and someone I admired greatly and was deeply inspired by. The road to Don starts back 25 years ago when I began seriously revisiting record collecting. It seemed like every record I picked up had his name on it. Whether it was Signal, Prestige, Muse, Xanadu, MPS, RCA there was his name. I thought to myself, "Who was this man, Don Schlitten?" Then when I began working with George Klabin at Resonance Records in 2009 and we got to know each other, he explained that he worked with Don back in the 1960s at Prestige Records. Don hired George as an engineer on a variety of sessions from artists such as Dexter Gordon, Pucho and His Latin Soul Brothers, and James Moody. I just loved Don's work. The records he made and the album covers to boot were total eye candy with an individualistic design that was all him. The typeface on some of these album jackets are just genius, and when I see certain covers I say to myself, "that's a Schlitten." Don also revealed the backstory to many of the photographs. One of my favorites was the photo of Red Garland from the 1962 Prestige album "When There Are Gray Skies." The photo was taken outside of Rudy Van Gelder studio. I just love that photo and I love that album. When I found out about the connection between George and Don, I seized the opportunity. One day, when we were on a business trip to New York for a recording session, I asked George if we could meet up with Don and we set up an appointment. We took a car service up to Kingsbridge, NY to meet Don and his lovely wife and soulmate, Nina, and we got to sit with Don in his office at his desk. It was quite a meeting. It was exciting to be in Don's office with George. Although George and I only made the one trip together, I was so enamored with Don and all that he gave to the music. I was fascinated by him, and we stayed in touch. I also walked away that day with an armful of sealed Xanadu records as a gift. I would go visit Don and Nina often when I came to New York, and I even brought people to their home over the years such as Loren Schoenberg, Jordi Soley and Carlos Agustin Calembert from Elemental Music, Matt Merewitz, and more recently Kristian St. Clair and Kyle Eagle. It wouldn't be a great visit unless we had some deli food from Liebmans. Don always having his classic tongue-tipped sandwich, and me with my pastrami and chopped liver. Don's home was a sanctuary for him. In the summer when there was no AC in the bottom part of the house, we'd often be schvitzing up a storm! We'd listen to music, eat and chat. It was wonderful. And it was a thrill to get to know his beloved Nina too, his soulmate. We'd have lunch and spend time together. They were an amazing couple. I loved talking about movies with them. I remember Don and Nina recommending "Double Indemnity." It was very hard when he lost her, but he persevered. He's one of the 'Last of the Mohicans' for sure, and had an amazing optic lens into a bygone era that doesn't exist anymore. I think of that famous William Gottlieb photo taken from 52nd Street of all those famous jazz clubs, and I have an image in my mind of the young Don sneaking into a club like the Three Deuces to catch an earful of the music that drove him wild. There's an interview with Don, which a portion of exists, that Bret Primack used in a video he made for the Xanadu Master Edition Series that I co-produced with Don for Elemental Music starting in 2015. It wasn't easy producing that series. Some of the tapes were seriously damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Sandy, and all of the artwork was gone. We had to track down the original artwork and have the covers drum-scanned, and had to have the reels cleaned. Elemental let me do all of this. It was a lot of work and a lot of generosity from Elemental Music. It also brought me closer to Don and Nina (and Jordi and Carlos too). Xanadu was a husband and wife record label. She was an incredible and talented person in her own right, and she ran that label with him. I was fortunate to get to spend some time with her too. Watch the video interview here with Don: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E8Jrb9Jo_I I was very proud to most recently utilize some of his great photography in my work. The 2025 Elemental Music release, Bill Evans "Further Ahead: Live In Finland (1964-1969)" featured a color photo of Don's that Burton Yount made into a wonderful album cover. Enid Farber helped us scan the color slide we ended up using. Don also provided a previously unpublished photo of Kenny Barron that we used in the insert 2025 Time Traveler Recordings reissue of his 1973 Muse release, "Sunset To Dawn." In 2015, thanks to Jordi and Carlos at Elemental, and the nice folks at the Orchard (and thank you, Nick Gordon and Richard Gotterher!), we licensed 25 Xanadu titles from his catalog that stemmed from recordings he made and were a very big part of his history to be reissued on CD. They're collector's items now. Over the last 7 years, I worked with Don to digitize his contact sheets, prints and other related materials, as we've been working toward a coffee table book that would summarize his life's work with Don directing all along the way. It's been a roller coaster ride, even getting far along with a publisher who had to pull out last minute. But thanks to author/producer/musician Pat Thomas, from a conversation we had a couple of years ago, he suggested I speak to Kristian St. Clair, an esteemed colleague, filmmaker, and fellow archivist who also works with the good folks at Fantagraphics. We spoke, and thanks to Kristian and Kyle Eagle, we were able to co-author this book together with Don. If it hadn't been for Kristian, this project might not have happened. The great Ted Panken penned an expansive 15,000 word essay/biography about Don and his life. Ted spoke to Don extensively to make sure everything was captured properly and accurately. The book also includes an intro from me, and we acquired the rights to publish a comic strip from American Splendor, depicting Don having a conversation over the phone with Harvey Pekar about the great Jimmie Lunceford trumpet legend, Freddie Webster. The book, "Love & Understanding: The Photography of Don Schlitten" is due out on August 25th on Fantagraphics. Don directed every single aspect of the book, even the cover of the book was the last album cover he designed. Everything was made to his liking and it even includes all his favorite album covers. Although he's not here physically, it's an incredible tribute, and was his creation. Thanks to Kristian and Kyle for bringing this project back to life. I'm eternally grateful to Kristian for doing this mitzvah so we could finish this project for a great man. I extend my deepest condolences to his daughter Tiana and her family. No pressure, but if you're interested, here's a link to pre-order the book now at: https://www.fantagraphics.com/.../love-and-understanding... *** READ THE FULL OBITUARY BELOW *** Don Schlitten, the Grammy-nominated jazz record producer, photographer and graphic designer, best known for his extensive contributions to bebop and straight-ahead jazz including producing hundreds of albums, capturing candid images of iconic musicians and designing influential album covers from the 1950s to the 1980s, passed away on February 9th, just shy of a month before his 94th birthday. Born in the Bronx, Schlitten spent his entire life in the city he loved, passionately promoting jazz, the music he loved. As a teenager, Schlitten studied art at the High School of Music and Art, then saxophone at the New York Conservatory of Modern Music. In 1955, at just 23 years old, Schlitten co-founded Signal Records. Signal was sold to Savoy Records in the late 1950s, and after this, Schlitten worked as a freelance producer through the 1960s, including for Prestige Records. where he became the Art Director. Schlitten’s photographs appear on hundreds of albums for this iconic label, and soon he was producing albums for Prestige, including recordings by jazz luminaries Dexter Gordan, Sonny Criss, James Moody and Tal Farlow. With Joe Fields he founded Cobblestone Records in 1972, producing Sonny Stitt and the landmark six-volume Newport Jazz Festival Series. He and Fields also worked together at Muse Records and Onyx Records; celebrating traditional jazz, emphasizing mainstream and bebop styles. Schlitten’s experience at these labels later inspired him in 1975 to form his own record company, Xanadu Records. A labor of love that flourished with the collaboration between Schlitten and his wife Nina, more than one hundred outstanding albums were released during the fifteen-year life of Xanadu Records, showcasing Schlitten’s multiple talents as a producer, photographer and writer. Schlitten selected and recorded the artists, designed the album artwork, photographed the sessions and wrote some of the album liner notes. Through Xanadu Schlitten took pride in promoting lesser-known jazz musicians, many of whose careers he helped resurrect. Amongst the Xanadu “family” of musicians were Barry Harris, Al Cohn, Kenny Barron, Charles McPherson, Sam Jones, Jimmy Heath and so many others. Schlitten’s goal was to produce non-commercial recordings featuring intimate small group musician pairings of his choosing. He introduced a profit-sharing plan to ensure that his musicians were fairly compensated for their work because, as Schlitten said, “the Xanadu artists are members of a family who love and respect each other.” His visual legacy will be celebrated in the upcoming book, “Love and Understanding: The Jazz Photography of Don Schlitten,” due out in August, featuring over one hundred personally selected photographs, some released as album covers and some never previously seen. Schlitten has left a compelling legacy of soulful music and artistic photographs that chronicle the great American art form called jazz.

Two doozies!

Alto Player Allen Mezuida