Michael Cuscuna
(1928 - 2024)
MICHAEL CUSCUNA, (1948 – 2024), three-time Grammy Award winner and influential figure in the jazz recording industry, died Saturday, April 20, 2024, at the age of 75. He was most wellknown for his groundbreaking jazz reissues, the result of a lifelong mission to unearth hidden musical gems and bring them to light. Cuscuna’s meticulous work in the Blue Note archives offered jazz aficionados an unprecedented glimpse into the creative process of the genre’s most iconic figures.
Reception is held at the Bosak Funeral Home, 453 Shippan Avenue, Stamford CT 06902 from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on May 4th. After 1:30 p.m. friends and family are invited to the house on Fairview Avenue.
Other news regarding a tribute will be forthcoming.
Born on September 20, 1948, in Stamford Connecticut, he was a graduate of King School, entered The Wharton School of Business and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. While in college, he hosted nightly jazz programs on the University’s radio station, WXPN, and had a part-time job at ESP-Disk Records. He eventually took on writing assignments for DownBeat, and Jazz and Pop magazines. By 1967, Cuscuna was presenting concerts in Philadelphia for Paul Bley, Joe Henderson and others. Upon graduating, he received an offer from Philadelphia’s WMMR to DJ a radio jazz show, and later he went to work for WABC FM (WPLJ), which brought Cuscuna to New York City as a DJ on the ‘free form’ morning show.
While in New York, Cuscuna produced albums by Buddy Guy and Junior Wells for Vanguard and Blue Thumb. He also recorded several singer/songwriters including Bonnie Raitt’s “Give It Up.” He went on to work for Atlantic Records, producing records with Garland Jeffreys, Oscar Brown Jr., Buddy Guy, Dave Brubeck, and The Art Ensemble of Chicago.
By the end of 1973, he established himself as a freelance producer with projects for Atlantic, ABC, Motown, and Arista. Notable among these was a series of critically acclaimed albums for Columbia by Dexter Gordon and Woody Shaw. Throughout the 1970s, Cuscuna continued to write for DownBeat, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Saturday Review, and Record World, where he was also the jazz editor from 1971 to 1976.
Throughout his career, Cuscuna possessed a curiosity for unearthing unissued jazz recordings, delving into the vaults of record labels. 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, re-released hundreds of editions including works by Thelonious Monk, Sidney
Bechet, Hank Mobley, Horace silver, John Coltrane, Lee Morgan, Dexter Gordon, Art Blakey, The Nat king Cole Trio, Miles Davis and Billy Holliday. Cuscuna’s dedication to the preservation and continuation of the Blue Note Label will forever be considered perhaps his most important contribution to the jazz community. Mosaic Records will continue under the direction of Fred Pustay, Michael’s other partner.
Throughout Mosaic’s history, Cuscuna continued to work with other record labels. He worked for Bruce Lundvall at Blue Note Records, where he produced records by Lou Rawls, McCoy Tyner, Tony Williams, Dianne Reeves, Freddie Hubbard, Don Pullen, Andrew Hill, Joe Lovano, the Charles Tolliver
Big Band and New Directions with Greg Osby, Stefon Harris and Jason Moran among others. He brought many artists to the label including Andrew Hill, John Scofield, and Al Green.
He was a producer for the Mt. Fuji Festival for Japanese TV from 1986-1996. From 1989 to 1992, he served as musical director for a series of jazz videos produced by SDR films for Pioneer Laser Discs. The series includes such artists as Stanley Jordan, John Scofield, Dianne Reeves and Tony Williams. In 2014, He coproduced with Jason Moran the Blue Note 75th Anniversary Concert at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Michael served as a primary consultant on Bertrand Tavernier’s film ‘Round Midnight and for Ken Burns documentary series, Ken Burns’s Jazz in which he appears. He also has appeared as the unofficial Blue Note historic authority in “Blue Note, Beyond the Notes,” a film by Sophie Huber documenting the story of the Blue Note label.
In 1988, as a writer and archivist, he co-authored, The Blue Note Label: A Discography. After acquiring the Francis Wolff Photographic Collection in 1993, more than 20,000 negatives shot during the original Blue Note Recording sessions, Mosaic’s sister company, Mosaic Images, published 2 books with Rizzolli and furnish material for three other books published in France, Germany and Barcelona.
In 1995 Cuscuna designed a series of box sets to organize and document the considerable legacy of Miles Davis at Columbia from 1955 to 1970. In the early 2000’s, Cuscuna, co-created a series of box sets featuring live Miles Davis performances called the “Bootleg Series.”
In 1979, Cuscuna was voted #1 as DownBeat’s “Producer of the Year’ critics poll and has placed #1 or #2 in many subsequent years. DownBeat presented Michael with a “Lifetime Achievement Award” in 2023 for his contribution to the recording industry.
Cuscuna won three Grammy Awards, the first of which was in the Best Historical Album category for The Complete Capitol Recordings of the Nat King Cole Trio (Mosaic) in 1992 and The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia 19331944 (Columbia) in 2001 and in the best liner notes category in 1998 for The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings of the Miles Davis Quintet 1965-1968 (Columbia/Mosaic).
A resident of Stamford, Connecticut, Michael is survived by his wife Lisa, his children, Max and his wife Jackie, daughter Lauren, and two grandchildren, Nicolas and Penelope Cuscuna.