Legendary jazz pianist and teacher Sal Mosca will celebrate his 77th birthday by giving two rare concerts, his first public performances in over ten years. Plagued by illness and personal loss, Mosca has been a virtual recluse for the last decade, but for over 50 years prior to that he was an influential performer and a mentor to innumerable aspiring jazz musicians.
A native and long-time resident of Mt. Vernon, NY, Mosca played jazz in local clubs as a teenager before playing in the Army band and later attending the New York College of Music, where he studied classical piano as well as harmony and composition. After graduation he studied for several years with jazz legend Lennie Tristano, an innovator in improvisation and the first artist to record free jazz, who won the respect of jazz icons Charlie Parker and Bud Powell and influenced such jazz greats as Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh. Mosca performed and recorded with Konitz and Marsh as well as artists such as Miles Davis, Max Roach, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Stan Getz, Billy Bauer and Rob Brookmeyer. In addition to club dates at all major venues on the east coast, he performed solo recitals in Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Recital Hall in New York as well as in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Performing with Mosca will be Long Island resident Jimmy Halperin (a student of both Mosca and Tristano) on tenor saxophone. Also performing will be the Bob Arthurs Quintet, which includes four Mosca students: Arthurs (trumpet), a Westchester native, now a resident of Riverdale and Pleasant Valley, NY, who is the Dean of Students and Faculty at the Music Conservatory of Westchester and head of its jazz department; Dave Frank of New York City, who also studied with Marsh (tenor saxophone); Jon Easton, also of New York City (piano), and Brooklyn resident Joe Solomon (bass)
A native and long-time resident of Mt. Vernon, NY, Mosca played jazz in local clubs as a teenager before playing in the Army band and later attending the New York College of Music, where he studied classical piano as well as harmony and composition. After graduation he studied for several years with jazz legend Lennie Tristano, an innovator in improvisation and the first artist to record free jazz, who won the respect of jazz icons Charlie Parker and Bud Powell and influenced such jazz greats as Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh. Mosca performed and recorded with Konitz and Marsh as well as artists such as Miles Davis, Max Roach, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Stan Getz, Billy Bauer and Rob Brookmeyer. In addition to club dates at all major venues on the east coast, he performed solo recitals in Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Recital Hall in New York as well as in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Performing with Mosca will be Long Island resident Jimmy Halperin (a student of both Mosca and Tristano) on tenor saxophone. Also performing will be the Bob Arthurs Quintet, which includes four Mosca students: Arthurs (trumpet), a Westchester native, now a resident of Riverdale and Pleasant Valley, NY, who is the Dean of Students and Faculty at the Music Conservatory of Westchester and head of its jazz department; Dave Frank of New York City, who also studied with Marsh (tenor saxophone); Jon Easton, also of New York City (piano), and Brooklyn resident Joe Solomon (bass)
For more information contact All About Jazz.
