Michael Cuscuna (1948-2024) - The Vinyl Guide Interview
The Vinyl Guide - Artist Interviews for Record Collectors and Music Nerds
Nate Goyer
4.7 • 579 Ratings
🗓️ 21 April 2024
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Michael Cuscuna (1948-2024) spent several decades preserving record label archives and compiling rare recordings, sessions and 'vault material' through Mosaic Records. In theis 2019 interview he discusses this fascinating journey through the vaults of Blue Note, Atlantic, Impulse and more to make this material available to music lovers around the world.
- Starting his career, joining Atlantic
- Producer and A&R for Atlantic Records
- Working with the Atlantic Records tape warehouse
- Early tape finds – Mingus at Antibes
- Convincing Ahmet Ertegun to reissue lost material
- Unissued material lost in a building fire
- Starting to document and archive Blue Note tapes
- Joining Blue Note, organizing the archive
- Finding Alfred Lion's notes and files in Japan
- Obtaining the Francis Wolff photography negatives
- Improving the condition of the negatives and imagery
- Was Alfred aware of the legacy of Blue Note Records?
- Did Blue Note have the original artwork and cover layouts?
- Memories of the Blue Note Reissue Series
- Much of the Blue Note vault materials have been issued
- Trainwreck sessions that haven't been released
- Blue Note artwork in the 70s and 80s
- Listening to hours and hours of outtakes
- Idea for Mosaic Records boxsets
- Working with various labels and rights holders for reissues
- Columbia reissuing Miles Davis
- Mosaic shift from LP to CD
- Deciding what's next for Mosaic Records releases
- Challenges of developing boxsets
- Most rewarding Mosaic Releases
- Current pricing of Mosaic Records boxsets
- Story of the Monk/Coltrane at Carnagie Hall
- Story of the Charlie Parker / Dean Benedetti tapes
- Interview wrap up
Support this podcast at: www.Patreon.com/VinylGuide
Listen on Apple: https://apple.co/2Y6ORU0
Listen on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/36qhlc8
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Oh, hey, everyone, it's Nate, and I'm here with a bit of an impromptu podcast episode. |
| 0:08.6 | I've got some news to share with you today. |
| 0:10.7 | It's a bit sad. |
| 0:12.1 | It's not lost on me that today is record store day, April 20th, |
| 0:16.7 | so a lot of you have been running around independent record shops and grabbing some good loot. |
| 0:22.9 | Just also want to share the news with you today about Michael Kaskuna. |
| 0:28.0 | Michael Kaskuna, who you may know as a jazz historian, pioneer of archiving, recorded music and reissuing some very important jazz recordings. |
| 0:40.5 | Michael passed away. |
| 0:41.8 | Not sure of the circumstances. |
| 0:43.4 | He was 75 years old. |
| 0:45.0 | Not sure exactly when that was, but the news was shared today about that. |
| 0:48.8 | And I was fortunate enough to have Michael on the show in June of 2019. |
| 0:54.7 | So I'm going to replay that interview today. |
| 0:58.8 | Michael, just the headlines, he started his career at Atlantic Records. |
| 1:03.0 | He was working directly for the Erdogan Brothers, where he then went on to Blue Note and helped not only revive their tape archive and reissued some |
| 1:13.4 | phenomenally important recordings, but Michael also preserved the Francis Wolfe photography |
| 1:19.4 | negatives, which is a crucial element of the packaging and the imagery of Blue Note and |
| 1:24.4 | jazz in general. Michael eventually founded Mosaic Records, and many of you |
| 1:30.6 | have probably seen those boxes if you don't already own them. Most jazz fans and audiophile |
| 1:35.5 | completists really consider Mosaic Records a high watermark in making lost recordings available |
| 1:41.5 | for enjoyment. Michael's impact on the recording and jazz industry is absolutely huge. |
| 1:46.9 | Cannot be overstated. |
... |
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