Rare Records; The Loss of Michael Cuscuna
I said I would continue perusing the recent auctions from The Jazz Record Center, so here is Part II, starting with Elvin Jones and Richard Davis, Heavy Sounds, Impulse AS-9160. This was ana original white label stereo promo copy with the white label. The record was in M- condition and the cover seemed to be probably VG++. This is not a record you see very often, particularly a promo copy. One of the interesting things about this album is a track called Elvin’s Guitar Blues, featuring Elvin Jones’ first recording on a new instrument, the acoustic guitar. I happen to have an original pressing of this record, so I’m putting Elvin’s Guitar Blues on the turntable now. The verdict: Well, I’m sure it was fun for Elvin to record a track on guitar, but he’s a little bit better as a drummer. Frank Foster takes a nice, short blues solo on the track. The record sold for $339.
John Jenkins, Cliff Jordan and Bobby Timmons, Jenkins, Jordan and Timmons, Prestige New Jazz 8232. This was an original purple label preview copy, that looked to be in M- condition for the record and VG++ or M- for the cover. The final price was $1,713.88 and, yes, that is a new record price for that particular record, according to the records kept by Popsike.
Freddie Hubbard, The Artistry of Freddie Hubbard, Impulse A-27. This was an original mono pressing with the white promo labels. The record and cover both looked to be in M- condition. The final price was $520, another record high.
Many of you may have seen that Michael Cuscuna passed away the other day at the age of 75. Michael was co-founder of Mosaic Records and one of the icons of the record collecting community, unearthing hundreds (thousands?) of treasures from the Blue Note and other catalogues. I did not know him personally, but I offer sincere condolences to his family and many friends. If you do a Google search you can find more information about his life and contributions to the jazz world. I copied the following from an email message I received.
|
|
|
Aloha Al, thank you for these articles and tidbits of information. Forgive for being a little green on this topic of Cuscuna. When it’s said he rescued all the unpublished, not released material from Blue Note, was some of that sold, ended up in Japan and thus many Sonny Clark, Grant Green Tina Brooks Japan BN only releases? Meaning exclusive out of Japan. How about the BN LT series from the late 70’s early 80’s, was Cuscuna also responsible for those? I have some Mosaic sets now but right out of college in the 90’s and learning about this great music, I admit trying to get originals as I wanted to “hear” how the music sounded playback wise, even if there was a little snap/crackle/pop! I am happy to have the Brooks mosaic set as I’d have to win the lottery to get the BN original! Mahalo!
Kyle, what Cuscuna did was to get access to the Blue Note vault and create some order of the mess down there. To categorize and listen to unissued material and to get that material released in Mosaic Sets. So “rescued” means that he put a lot of detective work to identify recorded music. “Who’s playing on this tape” etc. and produce all those wonderful Mosaic sets gettin the linear notes and session notes done and distribute. He did not do it by himself of course but without him we would not be where we are today. We owe him a great deal.
Aloha Anders, Arigatou Gozaimasu thank you very much for that explanation. I was trying to understand his connection to the music, I know he was in the industry for years. The Mosaic sets were pricy at the time I came out of college in the 1990’s. I remember folks talking about them, very nice sets. I was trying to get my hands on originals or early pressings. As I mentioned, not being able to own the original Tina Brooks BN album, I was happy to get his unissued material on the Japanese Blue Notes and later getting the Mosaic set to fill in any “holes” I had for him. I’m sure I’ll get a few more sets! Take care now. Mahalo!
I have several Mosaic sets and, just before lockdown, bought a Francis Wolff print of Grant Green from Mosaic (from the Feelin’ the Spirit session). When it was ready to be sent, a kind email came from Michael Cuscuna, which made my day (several days, actually). What an amazing man.
“Heavy Sounds” has one of my favorite record jackets of all time. That, along with Blakey’s “Buhaina’s Delight”, Miles’ “Steamin’ “, Monk’s “Monk” on Columbia, Hartman’s “I Just Dropped By…”, “Coltrane Time” and several others made a nice display after I quit smoking 30 years ago. (Yes, I know it’s naughty to smoke).
Somethin’ about “smoky jazz”. It’s a mood, a club-scene now nostalgic. I quit smoking in 1986. Love the mid-century Covers.
Richard Davis at one point said he didn’t actually smoke and just had to hold the damn cigarette for the shoot. That may be the case, though I feel like I’ve seen a couple of other Richard Davis smoking images. Regardless, it’s a neat cover and the record is good (though I cannot imagine paying collector prices for it).