All About Jazz
September 2007

Published: October 16, 2007

Sal Mosca, 80, pianist and teacher.
Mt. Vernon, NY, April 27, 1927—July 28, 2007.

Salvatore J. (Sal) Mosca, a fiercely independent modern jazz pianist and teacher whose virtuosity invoked Art Tatum, was one of the more original artists in jazz.

In poor health for years, he died July 28 at Westchester County Hospitals, NY, of emphysema complications. He was 80.

Mosca, a protégé of Lenny Tristano, worked and recorded with the blind master's alto saxophonist Lee Konitz in 1949-1965, and tenor saxophonist Warne Marsh in the 1970s.

“He was closest in style to Lennie, but managed to express his own personality within that style,” Ira Gitler, coauthor of The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz, said. Gitler said Mosca may have achieved even more as a teacher.

The pianist later led his own combos, ending a 32-session recording career with a trio album, Thing-Ah-Majig (Zinnia 118 CD). All five tracks were standard tunes poorly recorded in the leader's home studio.

“But wait until you hear what Mosca does with “I'll Remember April” and “I Can't Get Started,” a Jazz Times reviewer wrote in 2006. “Tempo and melody and changes are relative matters” to the pianist, who “breaks these songs so far down, in abstracted block chords, tangential fragments and confrontational tremolos, that it is startling when they resolve back into themselves.” The Sal Mosca Trio performed in February 2005 at William Paterson University, in Wayne.

Lester Young and Art Tatum “made masterworks” out of standard tunes, Mosca told Zan Stewart, the Star-Ledger jazz critic. “That's what I try to do.”