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Sal Mosca

Salvatore Joseph Mosca was born in Mt. Vernon, New York, on April 27, 1927. The son of first generation Americans, Sal and his sister Dolores grew up during the harsh years of the Great Depression. The genre of Jazz music that had been stylized by blacks in New Orleans was rapidly spreading to an area of New York City known as Harlem, a predominantly black community formed from the great northern migration caused by World War I. Sal and jazz were destined to meet in the late 1930s at the vaudeville shows, nightclubs, and band performances of the era. Sal would become a major figure of the Free Jazz/Cool Jazz genre.

Sal says that as a child of ten or eleven years he would watch the keys on the player piano as a role of music played and would try to figure out how to play it back. Chopin is said to have learned by that method, but Sal was not so fortunate. As hard as he tried, he just couldn't reverse-engineer a piece to his satisfaction. At that time, he was playing sound combinations using the chromatic scale, trying to imitate or interpret natural sounds; the passage of a thunder storm, for example. Sal says he knew for sure by this age in his life that he wanted to be a musician, and that the piano would be his instrument.

At the age of twelve, Sal began to take piano lessons from Wilbur 'Duke' Jessup, a local Dixieland style musician. Sal was a serious student from the beginning and insists that he had little aptitude or innate musical talent. Improvement came only through hard work and constant practice.

Sal studied with Duke for two years until the instructor was pressured to quit teaching music to obtain a "regular" job for financial reasons. This experience was not lost on Sal. His early life during the Depression, plus his decision to enter a field where making enough money for a family was questionable, made Sal recognize early the need to keep careful control over his finances and his musical independence. He would later see many major players exploited financially and artistically, validating his earlier observations.

Sal's second instructor was a man named Hal Scofield, a Broadway theatre musician who was expert in sight reading and transposing. By the age of 15, Sal had five students of his own and was playing regularly in local nightclubs, disguising his youth with a mustache, professional manner, and sophisticated performances.

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1
Album Review

Sal Mosca: The Talk of the Town. Live at BimHuis

Read "The Talk of the Town. Live at BimHuis" reviewed by Maurizio Zerbo


Una lectio magistralis sull'esplorazione degli standard jazzistici. Si può definire così questo sublime set olandese del 1992, dove tutto sembra funzionare a meraviglia. A sedersi in cattedra è Sal Mosca, fedele discepolo di Lennie Tristano, per dispensare un caleidoscopio emozionante di note. Tra fitte destrutturazioni tematiche e sontuose sostituzioni armoniche, il pianista statunitense incanta per il modo in cui sa trarre riposte sfumature dai brani interpretati. Nel caso degli standard boppistici, emerge una fitta rete di ...

324
Album Review

Sal Mosca Quartet: You Go to My Head

Read "You Go to My Head" reviewed by Stuart Broomer


Along with the saxophonists Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh and guitarist Billy Bauer, pianist Sal Mosca was among the first wave of musicians to construct a personal style within the school of Lennie Tristano--in general a simultaneous commitment to the velocity of bop, the smoothly liquid lines of Lester Young and a linear exploration of harmony that expands on both. While he first recorded with Konitz in 1949, Mosca largely devoted himself to teaching, so that by the time of ...

226
Album Review

Sal Mosca: Thing-Ah-Majig

Read "Thing-Ah-Majig" reviewed by Brandt Reiter


Often referred to as Lennie Tristano's prime pupil, 78-year-old Sal Mosca has spent the greater part of the last half-century teaching rather than performing or recording, so any new disc by the low-profile pianist is immediately something of an event. Thing-Ah-Majig, recorded in 2004 and especially noteworthy as Mosca's first trio recording since 1959, does not disappoint.The program is what you'd expect from a Tristano disciple: five warhorse standards (plus one Mosca original, the leisurely “Nowhere ), picked ...

244
Album Review

Sal Mosca: Thing-Ah-Majig

Read "Thing-Ah-Majig" reviewed by Derek Taylor


School spirit can sometimes be a liability in jazz, a genre where individuality remains a paramount attribute. Critics lumped drummer Shelly Manne in with the Cool clique early on, even though his flexibility in taste and technique embraced a host of styles from swing to hard bop to early free. Similarly, allegiance to one's mentors, while admirable, occasionally carries peripheral costs of association. Sal Mosca knows these predicaments all too well. As one of Lennie Tristano's most prodigious pupils, and ...

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Profile

Sal Mosca

Read "Sal Mosca" reviewed by Elliott Simon


At the age of 12, pianist Sal Mosca was sitting on the curb on a hot summer day with some friends. He felt a cool breeze come at him and his next thought was that he wanted to take piano lessons. He acted on that impulse and began a journey that has thus far spanned seven decades. Along the way he has released influential solo and group recordings, had a recording label devoted to his music and played a major ...

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5

Music Industry

Sal Mosca and the Larry Bluth Trio

Sal Mosca and the Larry Bluth Trio

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Back in 2020, bassist and long-time e-pal Don Messina emailed me about a couple of tapes in his possession that hadn't been released. One was by the Larry Bluth Trio from 2001. The other was a collection of solo recordings by Sal Mosca in 1970 and 1997. My ears went up upon hearing about both tapes. What the two had in common was Lennie Tristano. Bluth and Mosca were both students of Tristano, a blind New York pianist who in ...

3

TV / Film

Doc: Sal Mosca (Un-Sung)

Doc: Sal Mosca (Un-Sung)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

For years, cool-school pianist Sal Mosca labored as a student of Lennie Tristano, recording only sporadically. He avoided touring with top stars as their accompanist to be with his family and to teach his students. Before Mosca died in 2007, James M. Lester was able to make this wonderful short documentary—Sal Mosca (Un- Sung): To read my last post on Sal Mosca, go here. A special thanks to Don Messina, an extraordinary bassist who played behind Mosca on several of ...

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Recording

Sal Mosca: Holland, June 1981

Sal Mosca: Holland, June 1981

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

One of the most important collections of Sal Mosca's piano work has just hit the market. The five-CD package—Sal Mosca: Too Marvelous for Words (Cadence)—includes 56 tracks of the the pianist performing on tour in the Netherlands in June 1981. The material features five solo concerts by Mosca between June 19 and June 24 and gives us an opportunity to hear him at his finest. For those not in the know, Mosca was probably the purest exponent of the Lennie ...

2

Recording

Sal Mosca: Holland, 1992

Sal Mosca: Holland, 1992

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Out today is a superb two-CD set of previously unreleased live solo recordings by pianist Sal Mosca at the Bimhuis in jny: Amsterdam on November 14, 1992. The recordings on Sal Mosca: The Talk of the Town (Sunnyside) come from the Mosca estate, and the sound is superb. The two CDs feature all jazz standards, like Ghost of a Chance, Donna Lee, Topsy, Cherokee, Love for Sale and much more. There also are five medleys of standards. Melodies aren't buried ...

196

Event

Sal Mosca, Noted Jazz Pianist/Mentor, to Celebrate 77th Birthday with Rare Concerts

Sal Mosca, Noted Jazz Pianist/Mentor,  to Celebrate 77th Birthday with Rare Concerts

Source: All About Jazz

Legendary jazz pianist and teacher Sal Mosca will celebrate his 77th birthday by giving two rare concerts, his first public performances in over ten years. Plagued by illness and personal loss, Mosca has been a virtual recluse for the last decade, but for over 50 years prior to that he was an influential performer and a mentor to innumerable aspiring jazz musicians. A native and long-time resident of Mt. Vernon, NY, Mosca played jazz in local clubs as a teenager ...

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

The Talk of the Town....

Sunnyside Records
2015

buy

You Go to My Head

Blue Jack Jazz
2008

buy

Thing-Ah-Majig

Zinnia Records (2)
2005

buy

Thing - Ah - Majig

Zinnia Records (1)
2005

buy

A Concert

Jazz Records
1990

buy

For You

Jazz Records
1979

buy

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