Kevin Bresnahan

This was from Mosaic. Michael Cuscuna 1948 - 2024 Michael Cuscuna, a titan in the world of jazz, passed away on April 20, 2024, leaving behind a legacy that will resonate for generations. Michael is survived by his wife Lisa, his children, Max and his wife Jackie, and Lauren, and two grandchildren, Nicolas and Penelope Cuscuna. His passing leaves a void in the hearts of all who knew him. May he rest in peace, and forever be remembered as he will be deeply missed. Throughout his career, Michael possessed a curiosity for unearthing unissued jazz recordings, delving into the vaults of record labels looking for hidden gems. In 1975 his search led him to the great Blue Note vaults – unlocking a treasure of unissued material by the great jazz legends. This experience would later be the impetus for co-founding Mosaic Records Inc, a boutique label specializing in complete sets of some of the most influential jazz artists. Mosaic Records, co-founded with Charles Lourie, produced hundreds of editions including works by Thelonious Monk, Sidney Bechet, Hank Mobley, John Coltrane, Lee Morgan, Dexter Gordon, Art Blakey, Tina Brooks, The Nat King Cole Trio and Miles Davis. Michael recently received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Downbeat and here is an excerpt of one of Michael’s last interviews this past January. (full interview here). Born in Stamford, Connecticut, in 1948, Cuscuna first got into music at the age of 9 or 10. “It was contemporary R&B on the radio at first,” he recalled recently. “But I played drums on a little starter kit and got into drum records like Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich on Verve, then Max Roach and Art Blakey. When I started to hear the music around the drums, that’s when I got completely hooked. I went through Benny Goodman, Dave Brubeck and the MJQ, until I caught up to what was going on around me around 1960. “By age 14, I was going to Birdland, which had a peanut gallery. That’s when I heard Blakey and the Messengers, the Coltrane Quartet and Miles. They became my passion and still are. It’s the stuff that gets to you between about 12 and 25 that stays with you for life. You never absorb music in quite the same way after that.” Many years ago, Woody Shaw said of Cuscuna, “No matter what you produce or do in your life, the thing you’ll be remembered for is rescuing all that Blue Note material.” “Looking back all these years,” Cuscuna says today, “I’m content with that.” I’ve known Michael for 25+ years since having the privilege of joining Mosaic Records. While many are aware of the legacy of riches he has catalogued for one of the greatest art forms, all of us who work or have worked at Mosaic also know him as a hard worker, generous and dedicated to his family. Michael possessed an energetic spirit and drive that was infectious. When I look at the list of 200 sets for Mosaic plus all the Blue Note, Impulse and other recordings that Michael was instrumental in bringing to the public, it’s clear his passion for music drove his life-long ambitions. He was proud of his achievements while at the same time being very appreciative and grateful that he was working with many of the greatest jazz musicians and their body of work. It's very hard for me to convey my feelings about someone I worked closely with every day, had many lunches with and was treated to innumerable special musical memories. I’ll miss a partner, a lunch-mate, and a special friend. - Fred Pustay ====================================================== I can’t think of any better way to describe Michael than as my mentor. His guidance was immeasurable – filled with direction, leadership, knowledge, understanding, and of course, toss in some of that incredibly sarcastic wit and sense of humor. Michael knew, like his partner and close friend Charlie Lourie, how to run the business of a jazz re-issue label when there were few and far between such companies. He also was a true family man. I saw and heard the love he unconditionally gave to his family. It was not uncommon to hear a heartfelt “I love you” at the end of a conversation to his wife Lisa, or to see and hear the love and dedication to his children, and then, in the past few years, the stories of his grandchildren who gave him immeasurable pleasure. Michael embraced my passion for jazz record collecting and after about a dozen years of managing the Mosaic warehouse he and Charlie gave me a job of producer, expanding the Mosaic catalog to include more pre-tape era boxed sets. I am ever in debt to the both of them. And there are so many other Mosaic journeys in the past 36 years that I could impart to you, as I’m sure there are many others who knew him even better than I that could spin countless tales of this unique man. Seek them out. Keep Michael in your heart and on your turntables, CD players or however else you listen to the music. And be grateful and thankful he was here on this planet. - Scott Wenzel Wayne Shorter, Dexter Gordon, Michael Cuscuna, Billy Higgins, Herbie Hancock, Palle Mikkelborg (or Mads Vinding) and Ron Carter. Studio Davout in Paris, 1985 during the making of ‘Round Midnight. (photo courtesy Michael Cuscuna) “Jazz is still, for me, the greatest music ever – it just ate its way into my soul, and it became a part of every fabric of my body… I remember once I was doing a record with Dexter Gordon at 30th Street called Gotham City, and Art Blakey was on drums. During the session Art looked at me and said, ‘Man, you remind me of [Blue Note Records co-founder] Alfred Lion.’ That was the greatest line I ever heard, you know?” -Michael Cuscuna, JerryJazzMusician.com =============================================== Funeral arrangements are in process and will be held at the Bozak Funeral Home https://www.bosakfuneralhome.com/ in Stamford, CT. Please check their site at end of day Monday when information should be available. There will also be a web page on their site where you can post on their tribute wall. Visit Our Website view this email in your browser

During one of my visits to Stamford many years ago, Michael gave me this poster as a joke. He signed it, "To Kevin - Thanks for keeping me off the web". He was such a wiseass.

I knew his chances of survival were slim, but I was hoping he would pull through this. Damn. He was such a nice guy. I will miss him a lot. Cancer sucks.

Ha ha ha... I'd love to hear it but they made it pretty much impossible to buy. I tried joining the LA Jazz Institute to get it but their website was so screwed up, I couldn't get any links to allow me to buy the box set. I eventually gave up. As a membership drive offer, it was terribly executed.

I backup my bookmarks every now & then, similar to how I back up my photos & documents.

I think the worst-case playoff scenario for the Celtics is underway. They led the league by a wide margin during the regular season, but 4 of their losses were to good teams missing their leading scorer(s), which should have resulted in easy wins. But this Celtics team doesn't seem to be able to get motivated in these games. Now they're facing the Heat without Jimmy Butler.

Just finished: Curtis Counce - You Get More Boounce With Curtis Counce (Contemporary/Analogue Productions) Now playing: The Prestige Blues Swingers feat. Coleman Hawkins - Stasch (Prestige). I picked up this beautiful RVG pressing a few years back and stuffed it into the LP rack in the Various Artists section. I need to look in that section more often. Fun stuff. Old timey swing-styled in places but still fun.

I never did pick that one up. I guess I figured that the band picked the best of the tracks for the original release and didn't think the alternate takes would be very different. Was I wrong?

Saw Dickey a few times with the Allman Brothers Band and he was a pretty incredible guitarist.

The Messthetics are described as "Washington DC’s experimental jazz punk trio". I don't think I'd go that far but whatever it is, it's not for me.

Charles Smith makes some great Syrahs at that winery. My only problem is that there are too many different ones. I hope Smith makes it to the other side of his cancer diagnosis. Throat Cancer is a tough one.

Season 1 was OK if maybe a bit unbelievable. I mean, really, who knew so many people could be such massive assholes in one tiny restaurant? My wife & I did not like Season 2 very much, particularly the Christmas episode, which was over the top in nutty behaviors.

The hidden ball trick happened quite often when I was a kid playing baseball. Has it become such a rarity today that it's news?

I have tickets to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts on Wednesday. I don't think I've been in many decades. Looking forward to it.

4 Generations of Miles (Chesky). George Coleman, Mike Stern, Ron Carter & Jimmy Cobb. I like this date but I'm not 100% in on some of Stern's work, mainly because I don't like the echo-ey sound he went for here. It gives it a weird, almost dated vibe.

Front 242 - Front By Front. I put this on sometimes when I'm getting on the elliptical machine because it's got a decent pace throughout. Not sure I'm a big fan of this industrial style though.

There's an old boat buried in Short Sands Beach in York, ME. It can get exposed after strong storms and used to make an appearance about every 10-20 years. Lately, it's been popping up every 4 or 5 years. After this recent bout of storms, it's out again, probably more than it's ever been. I took this today on my daily walk. Someone studied the wreckage the last time it was exposed and estimated it to be from the late 1700's.

I assume this ad was released on April 1st?

Fun stuff. This is supposed to be Curtis Fuller's recording debut but there is some debate as to the actual recording dates. I wonder if the master tapes exist for this? I have the Japanese CDs and they don't sound that great. They sound better than the Fresh Sounds CDs but only a little. Has anyone heard the latest SHM-CD versions?

The Cars - Heartbeat City (Elektra). I haven't spun these old Cars LPs in years. Fun 80's pop. Lousy band to see live back in the day. Doesn't mean I didn't go several times though. I actually have this gatefold cover. I never realized that there was more than one cover for this LP. Ah... the top one is the CD gatefold and the bottom one is the LP.

That's a pressing defect. It's underfill and when it looks like that, it's normally called stitching. It is almost always audible and usually results in a ripping sound as the needle traverses those damaged areas.

From: https://digscholarship.unco.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1380&context=dissertations " Carmell [Jones] was from L.A., and everybody’s nice in L.A., and friendly and sunny and everybody owns cars and has a parking space and all that stuff. He just wasn’t used to the East Coast. That week we’re at Pep’s. It was a Sunday afternoon, [and] we were going to do a matinee. Rudy Van Gelder was setting up, and Carmell was on the bandstand, which is in front of the bar. You know the way guys in Philly are. So these two guys . . . say “You’re the new guy, you’re the guy from sunny California. You better be able to play, man, after what Blue Mitchell played.” And they’re just ragging on him. Any New Yorker, Philly or D.C. guy would just take that in stride and maybe come back at them. It crushed Carmell so badly that he just imploded for that whole day of recording. That’s what took the whole band down. He was just so sensitive and not used to the whole East Coast aggressive style . . . . It’s an aggressive style, but it’s mostly just people kidding each other. He crashed and burned and that took the whole thing down with him." And further: " Years later, Silver and Cuscuna spent an afternoon in a recording studio listening back to the recording. It was, in fact, so unissuable that Cuscuna relinquished the master tapes to Silver, who destroyed them."

According to Michael Cuscuna, the Pep's tapes were destroyed at Silver's request.

I saw the Heath Brothers shortly after I started attending Jazz shows and to this day, it stands out in my memories as one of the best. They seemed to have fun up on the bandstand. Tootie had a lot to do with it. RIP to one fine drummer.

I didn't think this was that impressive. I mean, yeah, he played the Pink Panther theme and soloed for a few bars, but it wasn't anywhere near as impressive as some of his actual Jazz performances.