Michael Cuscuna, the three-time Grammy winner, Mosaic Records co-founder, historian and archivist who produced hundreds of jazz reissues and studio sessions during his career, has died. He was 75.
Cuscuna died Saturday of cancer at his home in Stamford, Connecticut, Grammy-winning recording artist Billy Vera, a longtime friend, announced.
Cuscuna produced the 1970 album Buddy & the Juniors, featuring Buddy Guy, Junior Wells and Junior Mance, for Vanguard Records, and 1972’s Give It Up, Bonnie Raitt’s lone gold album during her time at Warner Bros.
He produced reissues and studio sessions for Impulse, Atlantic, Arista, Muse, Elektra, Freedom, Novus and virtually the entire Blue Note catalog.
“Plainly stated, Blue Note Records would not exist as it does today without the passion & dedication of Michael Cuscuna,” execs from the label wrote on Instagram.
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Readers of Blues & Rhythm magazine know his work in the blues field,...
Cuscuna died Saturday of cancer at his home in Stamford, Connecticut, Grammy-winning recording artist Billy Vera, a longtime friend, announced.
Cuscuna produced the 1970 album Buddy & the Juniors, featuring Buddy Guy, Junior Wells and Junior Mance, for Vanguard Records, and 1972’s Give It Up, Bonnie Raitt’s lone gold album during her time at Warner Bros.
He produced reissues and studio sessions for Impulse, Atlantic, Arista, Muse, Elektra, Freedom, Novus and virtually the entire Blue Note catalog.
“Plainly stated, Blue Note Records would not exist as it does today without the passion & dedication of Michael Cuscuna,” execs from the label wrote on Instagram.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Blue Note Records (@bluenoterecords)
Readers of Blues & Rhythm magazine know his work in the blues field,...
- 4/22/2024
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Alexander Hamilton, who died Jan. 28 at age 77, was a conductor and arranger who was able to add “movie star” to his credits in the last years of his life. His work on Aretha Franklin’s 1972 “Amazing Grace” album — certified as the bestselling album of her career — was heard by millions over a period of almost five decades before Franklin fans actually got to see as well as hear Hamilton’s handiwork as the arranger and conductor of that music. When the film rendering of that recording finally came out in 2018, Hamilton loomed as nearly as large a personality on-screen as its ostensible stars, James Cleveland and Franklin herself.
The producer of the “Amazing Grace” film, Alan Elliott, shares his memories of Hamilton with Variety.
Until the discovery of the film of “Amazing Grace,” the genius of the work of Alexander Hamilton was not as well known as it is now.
The producer of the “Amazing Grace” film, Alan Elliott, shares his memories of Hamilton with Variety.
Until the discovery of the film of “Amazing Grace,” the genius of the work of Alexander Hamilton was not as well known as it is now.
- 2/6/2022
- by Alan Elliott
- Variety Film + TV
Forty-seven years ago, in 1972, when Sydney Pollack filmed Aretha Franklin recording her Amazing Grace album, he did not use clapper boards. Franklin, then 29, had recently released Spirit in the Dark (1970) and Young, Gifted and Black (1972), and decided to record Amazing Grace probably because some of her critics believed that she had started straying from her gospel roots. Daughter of Baptist minister C.L. Franklin, Ms. Franklin not only decided to record an album of gospel songs that she had grown up singing, but also decided to record it in Los Angeles’ New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in front of a live audience, thereby proving that her roots were intact and nourishing one of the most magnificent musical geniuses our times have known. Franklin’s co-producer, Jerry Wexler, had arranged for Warner Bros. to film the recording and had signed up Sydney Pollack to film the proceedings. At the end of shooting...
- 4/5/2019
- MUBI
It’s the closest thing to witnessing a miracle — just some cameras, a crowd and a voice touched by God. Over two days in January of 1972, Aretha Franklin got up to sing out her gospel at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts, backed by the Southern California Community Choir. A film crew was there to catch the Queen of Soul blow the roof off the place. Not to get closer to the Lord — surely He was already listening — but to testify to his glory with the black church...
- 4/2/2019
- by Peter Travers
- Rollingstone.com
In 1990, Alan Elliott was a newly hired A&R man at Atlantic Records when he took a get-acquainted meeting with one of the label’s Mount Rushmore figures, producer Jerry Wexler. Wexler’s days with Aretha Franklin soon came up. “He said to me, ‘You heard Amazing Grace, right?’” recalls Elliott, referring to Franklin’s seminal 1972 gospel album. “I said it was my favorite record. He was a gruff fella, and he said, ‘We filmed it. We made the record and the film company made the film but fucked it up.
- 11/14/2018
- by David Browne
- Rollingstone.com
The new Aretha Franklin documentary Amazing Grace — filmed in 1972 during the live recording sessions for her hit album of the same name, but not available for public viewing until today — is a marvelous 87-minute testament to Franklin’s unrivaled singing ability.
But amid the embarrassment of vocal riches, there’s a scene that stands out, a showstopper to top all showstoppers. Franklin is tackling the album’s title track with her trademark bravura, wringing every ounce of expressive potential from each note, sighing and whispering and wailing with only piano and organ for accompaniment.
But amid the embarrassment of vocal riches, there’s a scene that stands out, a showstopper to top all showstoppers. Franklin is tackling the album’s title track with her trademark bravura, wringing every ounce of expressive potential from each note, sighing and whispering and wailing with only piano and organ for accompaniment.
- 11/12/2018
- by Elias Leight
- Rollingstone.com
Aretha Franklin, who died on August 16th at age 76, recorded more than 40 full-length albums in her six-decade career. It’s a deep catalog, crowded with indisputable classics and hidden gems. Rolling Stone’s music staff is paying its R.E.S.P.E.C.T.s to the Queen with tributes to our favorite Aretha LPs. Next up: Patrick Doyle on her gospel masterpiece.
Over two days in January 1972, a 29-year-old Aretha Franklin went back to where it all started. In the midst of a remarkable career turnaround — nine hit...
Over two days in January 1972, a 29-year-old Aretha Franklin went back to where it all started. In the midst of a remarkable career turnaround — nine hit...
- 8/22/2018
- by Patrick Doyle
- Rollingstone.com
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