The man with the best job in the world

Michael Cuscuna spoke tonight at Pitt as part of the university's Jazz Seminar. (The print version of my Q&A with him in City Paper is pretty short but you can find the whole, uncut interview, full of all kinds of jazz geek anecdotes, right here.)

When I got the William Pitt Union tonight, I saw Mr. C towards the front of the auditorium, talking to another guy. I got a chance to chat with him and found that he was as warm a guy in person as he was on the phone. He spoke for about 45 minutes, all killer, no filler. And when it came time for questions, I was actually first, asking how many Mosaic projects were charted for the future. (Answer - it all depends on when the label licenses the albums to him. Right now there are 2 in progress, and 8 on paper.) Someone asked about Andrew Hill, which I was glad to hear because the world needs more Andrew Hill champions. I really wanted to ask him who was more of a challenge to work with, Cecil Taylor or Andrew. But I didn't get the chance. After the talk, he had what seemed like an interview or something going on with some other fellow.

And now Michael has my card, so if he decides he needs a second banana to hang out with him while combing through the latest batch of tapes for his next project, and no one else picks up when he calls, then once pigs start flying, then he'll give me a call.