Sal Mosca, pianist, 80

  I  

Sal Mosca, a jazz pianist who played with Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan, passed away of complications from emphysema on July 28 in White Plains, N.Y. He was 80.

His recording career included cool jazz dates such as “Ezz-thetic,” with Miles Davis, and “Subconscious-Lee,” with saxophonist Lee Konitz. Since the ‘80s, Mosca has rarely performed or recorded, focusing instead on disciplined practicing and teaching.

“Perhaps more so than his music, Sal’s values for living affected everyone who knew him,” reads a requiem posted on his web site, salmosca.com. “Those who knew Sal only from appreciation of his music surely were able to glean the depth of his commitment to purity and the integrity he brought to everything he produced.”

Mosca is survived by three children and seven grandchildren.



  • Coltrane_John_008_copy_2.jpg

    “This is one of the great gifts that Coltrane gave us — he gave us a key to the cosmos in this recording,” says John McLaughlin.

  • 2tx3p_BNJF2025LineupApr11080x1350--1_copy.jpg

    The Blue Note Jazz Festival New York kicks off May 27 with a James Moody 100th Birthday Celebration at Sony Hall.

  • Ethan_Iverson_by_David_Moressi_2024_copy.jpg

    “I’m certainly influenced by Geri Allen,” said Iverson, during a live Blindfold Test at the 31st Umbria Jazz Winter festival.

  • Isaiah_Collier_by_Michael_Jackson_2025.jpg

    “At the end of the day, once you’ve run out of differences, we’re left with similarities,” Collier says. “Cultural differences are mitigated through 12 notes.”

  • Andy_Bey_NYC_2014_by_Steven_Sussman_copy.jpg

    “It kind of slows down, but it’s still kind of productive in a way, because you have something that you can be inspired by,” Andy Bey said on a 2019 episode of NPR Jazz Night in America, when he was 80. “The music is always inspiring.”

    Vocalist Andy Bey Dies at 85

    Singer Andy Bey, who illuminated the jazz scene for five decades with a four-octave range that encompassed a bellowing…


On Sale Now
June 2025
Theo Croker
Look Inside
Subscribe
Print | Digital | iPad