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The Mosaic Records Story
by Michael Cuscuna
In memory of Mosaic Records co-founder Michael Cuscuna (1948-2024). Although Mosaic Records' first release came out in July of 1983, the seeds for the business were planted in 1970. As a journalist, radio show host and record producer, I began coming into contact with many musicians who had been major players in Blue Note's repertory company. Since Blue Note had always been my favorite label for its consistent quality, conversations would ultimately drift to those great days of ...
read moreMichael Cuscuna: In The Vault Playing God
by AAJ Staff
From the 1995-2003 archive: This article first appeared at All About Jazz in December 2000. Michael Cuscuna is one of the most important figures in the jazz reissue field today. He has been responsible for hundreds of releases for many companies, and he was fortunate to meet and befriend Alfred Lion during the final years of his life. He is an authority on Lion's life and work and on the recordings and history of the Blue Note label. ...
read moreMosaic Records: Making Jazz History
by Bob Kenselaar
No one is more astonished by the longevity of Mosaic Records than Michael Cuscuna, the veteran record producer and one-time disc jockey who founded the label together with Charlie Lourie, a former clarinetist who worked in both jazz and classical contexts before becoming an executive at CBS records, Blue Note, and elsewhere. Arguably the premier reissue label in jazz, Mosaic Records issued the first of its limited edition box set recordings in 1983. Originally available through mail order only--at a ...
read moreMichael Cuscuna of Mosaic Records
by C. Andrew Hovan
This interview was originally published in July 2000. Founded in 1983, Mosaic Records continues to set the standards as one of the finest reissue companies on the scene. Their definitive boxed sets have culled the vaults of such labels as Blue Note, Pacific Jazz, Capitol, CBS, Verve, Roulette, Decca, Atlantic, and Reprise. Some of the artists to have been represented by these luxury sets have included Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, Shorty Rogers, Bud Powell, Tina Brooks, Larry Young, ...
read moreMosaic Records
by David Adler
Talking to Michael Cuscuna while Nelly's “Hot In Herre" plays on the jukebox is about as strange a dissonance as modern life has to offer. Cuscuna is the head of Mosaic Records and one of the most prolific reissue producers in the business. His work takes him deep inside the tape vaults, far away from the pop ephemera of the present. Since launching Mosaic in 1982 in partnership with the late Charlie Lourie , he has established the label as ...
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