Sal Mosca

[Larry Kart]

Some may not be familiar with them, so let me mention these two Sal Mosca solo albums (one recently issued, rec. in 1991 at a concert at the Bimhuis):

 

http://www.amazon.com/Talk-Town-Sal-Mosca/dp/B00VNVXGNI/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1442327995&sr=1-1&keywords=sal+mosca

 

 

the other recorded at a concert in 1979:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Sal-Mosca---pianist/dp/B000056VIO/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1442328134&sr=1-2&keywords=sal+mosca

 

The 2-CD Bimhaus set, beautifully recorded, is not quite what one expects (or I expected) from Mosca — by this point he’s rather Teddy Wilson-like, even Tatum-esque at times, little sense of a Tristano connection —  but the basically meditative tone is definitely Mosca-esque. In any case, I can think of nothing else quite like it.

 

The 1979 album, more like earlier Mosca, with more Tristano echoes, and recorded well enough, is more to my taste at this point, but the Bimhaus set is quite a chapter in Mosca's evolution.

 

Edited September 16, 2015 by Larry Kart

[king ubu]

Only know "A Concert" (the 1979 one - thanks again, brownie ) - it's very good indeed ... you have piqued my insterest for that Bimhuis set!

[brownie]

That Bimhuis double CD is a Masterpiece!??

[AllenLowe]

just listening - was it Spirits? with Konitz.

[Larry Kart]

Was what "Spirits" with Konitz?

"Spirits" was a circa 1970 small group album on Milestone, which I reviewed enthusiastically in Down Beat when it came out. BTW, Dan Morgenstern, my boss at DB, saved me from getting egg all over my face in that review. I'd referred to the piece "Hugo's Head" as a blues. Bluesy though the performance was IIRC, as its title suggests, the piece is based on "You Go To My Head." Eeesh.

 

FWIW, that review led the teenaged Bill Kirchner back in Youngstown, O., to buy "Spirits" and then resolve that one day he would go to NYC and study with Lee, which he did -- Bill then writing his first recorded arrangements for Lee's Octet. I only found about this from Bill years later.

Edited September 15, 2015 by Larry Kart

[mjzee]

The only Solo Mosca I've heard is the one on Choice.

[king ubu]

@Larry: great story!

@brownie: thanks for re-inforcing ... into the cart it goes!

[JSngry]

I well recall Larry's review, and I listen to as much Sal Mosca as I can get my hands on, although not as often as I can get my hands on it. Over the years, as Larry suggests, he's evolved into quite a distinctive niche player, if you know what I mean, couldn't have happened without Tristano, but not really speaking that language as overtly as he once did.

I guess he really led the hermetic lifestyle, though. I seem to recall an inrview with him somewhere in the last decade or two where he said he's looking forward to playing with Oscar Pettiford, or something like that. Isolation - works wonders for developing one's personal art, not worth a damn for getting gigs.

[king ubu]

I guess he really led the hermetic lifestyle, though. I seem to recall an inrview with him somewhere in the last decade or two where he said he's looking forward to playing with Oscar Pettiford, or something like that. Isolation - works wonders for developing one's personal art, not worth a damn for getting gigs.

Ouch! (or wait, maybe like that I can after all still catch Coltrane live?)

[JSngry]

Sure!

[Larry Kart]

I well recall Larry's review, and I listen to as much Sal Mosca as I can get my hands on, although not as often as I can get my hands on it. Over the years, as Larry suggests, he's evolved into quite a distinctive niche player, if you know what I mean, couldn't have happened without Tristano, but not really speaking that language as overtly as he once did.

I guess he really led the hermetic lifestyle, though. I seem to recall an inrview with him somewhere in the last decade or two where he said he's looking forward to playing with Oscar Pettiford, or something like that. Isolation - works wonders for developing one's personal art, not worth a damn for getting gigs.

Likewise, of course, upon his return to the scene Henry Grimes was unaware that Albert Ayler no longer was alive.

[JSngry]

Larry, so you know of any indicators that Mosca went through the same type (or similar) of "changes" that Grimes did? That degree of isolation for that long is just...unusual, I think.

[Larry Kart]

From Wikipedia:

 

"In 2002, Grimes [was found] alive but nearly destitute, without a bass to play, renting a tiny apartment in Los Angeles, California, writing poetry and doing odd jobs to support himself." 

 

Mosca’s case probably was not comparable, or not that comparable, to Grimes':

 

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/aug/09/guardianobituaries.usa1

[AllenLowe]

what I was saying was that Spirits was with Mosca. Which it was, and he was the subject of this thread. Hence my mention of the cd.

[Larry Kart]

what I was saying was that Spirits was with Mosca. Which it was, and he was the subject of this thread. Hence my mention of the cd.

OK -- something about the way you put it seemed elliptical to me, as though "Spirits" already had been mentioned.

[AllenLowe]

no, I just really loved that LP when I first heard it back when it came out, or probably a few years later; I used to go see Konitz all the time at Gregory's with Dick Katz and Wilbur little and his playing, on the right nights, was just a revelation. It was very close to what he did on Spirits.

[Big Beat Steve]

Digging out this thread (in search for info on that man).... What triggered it was that last weekend I scored a copy of the "Sal Mosca on Piano" LP (Wave LP8) for the princely sum of 1 Euro at an overstocks clearout sale held by a local record shop. With my eye almost constantly on obscurities off the beaten tracks of the usual suspects, I could not pass this up, of course ...
I haven't listened to the entire LP yet but my first impressions find this very intriguing. Workouts (from private recordings taped in 1955 and 1959) a bit like a mix of Tristano, Albany, with a touch of Marmarosa, etc. ...

Anyone here familiar with that record? How does it stack up in his overall discography? Is anyone familiar with the "other" of these two LPs released on Wave in the late 60s?

BTW, the history of this record seems to underline the obscure character of its contents. The shop stickers still present on the cover show it was originally priced at 20 DM when new, but no takers so eventually reduced to 8 DM by the same shop. And the secondhand shop it now ended up at placed a price tag of 20 EUR on it a couple of years ago, whereupon it sat (I had not noticed it there before either), was marked down to 2.50 EUR for the special offer bin a couple of months ago and now was sold off in the "all at 1 EUR" sale day. A steal ...

Edited November 14, 2023 by Big Beat Steve

[mjzee]

Anyone hear from Larry Kart lately?

[JSngry]

Larry has been ill. 

[Big Beat Steve]

Get well soon!

[HutchFan]

13 minutes ago, Big Beat Steve said:

Get well soon!

Seconded!  

 

[Larry Kart]

not ill but confined to an assisted care living facility from which I've now escaped to home after six months. I do have have a mild form of dementia (so it seems to me and others) but my wife used it as an excuse to put me in the slammer