Michael Cuscuna, Jazz Producer, Record Label Founder, Blue Note Discogropher Dies at 75

Mosaic co-founder set the standard for jazz reissue compilations

Sad to report that record producer, Mosaic Records co-founder, reissue supervisor and Blue Note discographer/historian Cuscuna passed away yesterday. He was 75 and had been fighting cancer for a number of years. Until very recently he was doing well.

Cuscuna began his storied music career in the late '60s as a disc jockey and music journalist, writing for Down Beat and Jazz and Pop magazines. He moved on to producing records in the mid 1970s for Capitol, Arista, Atlantic, Motown and of course later on Blue Note. He won three Grammys including "Best Historical Album Producer" in 1993 and 2002.

In 1983 he co-founded Mosaic Records with his business partner Charlie Lourie. His access to Blue Note, Roulette and other labels helped produce a series of "completists" box sets from artists that included Count Basie, Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans and of course Miles Davis, along with other, lesser known jazz artists that set the standard for reissue box sets.

He was a key player in the 1980s Blue Note revival during which he focused on releasing previously unissued records in the Blue Note and other label catalogs and he supervised the release of more than 100 reissued albums as well as producing new releases by diverse artists including McCoy Tyner, Buddy Guy, Bonnie Raitt, Woody Shaw and many others.

It may be apocryphal but the story as I remember being told is that in the mid 1990s while searching the Columbia archives Cusuna discovered a tape dated 1951 titled "Masterpieces by Ellington". Thinking it to be a compilation of old shellac singles, he threaded it up and was shocked to discover it was a series of extended Ellington suites—the first time the composer had the opportunity to record concert length pieces thanks to the advent of recording tape—and that the sound was sensational.

He produced a CD release on Columbia (so went the story I was told by I can't remember who) and it was noted by some Ellington fans, but it was not until Analogue Productions released it on vinyl all analog from the original tape that it became a true sensation, outselling even Tea For the Tillerman. It's the best-selling record in the Analogue Productions catalog.

A Discogs search shows that the album had a 1956 reissue with a different cover and another in 1973 as part of Columbia's Special Products Collector's series, but it wasn't issued on CD until 1998 in Japan and it wasn't released domestically on CD until 2003, so perhaps Michael was involved in one of those CD releases?

Until recently Cuscuna administered the Francis Wolff photo catalog, which includes some of jazz's most iconic images. The full extent of his contributions to the jazz world and to record collectors world wide will take some time to fully grasp.