Ozzie Cadena
Encyclopedia
Oscar "Ozzie" Cadena was an American record producer
with Savoy Records
and Prestige Records
who recorded gospel and jazz music in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, and helped popularize jazz music in Los Angeles
.
on September 26, 1924, and moved as a child to Newark, New Jersey
. As a youth, he would visit African American
churches and travel to Harlem
to listen to the music. He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps
and served for four years in the South Pacific
during World War II
.
He worked at Newark's Radio Record Shop, whose owner Herman Lubinsky also owned of Savoy Records. Cadena became a producer and A&R scout from 1954 to 1959 after his first sessions, in which he recorded trombonists J. J. Johnson and Kai Winding
in the first album of a lengthy collaboration; Cadena had first spoken to Johnson about a duo with Bennie Green
which led a duo after all, but with Winding as his partner. Together with drummer Kenny Clarke
, Cadena arranged series of one-time recordings with groups of musicians, recorded at sound engineer Rudy Van Gelder
's studio in Hackensack, New Jersey
. His recordings at Savoy included work of artists Cannonball Adderley, Shirley Caesar
, John Lee Hooker
, Milt Jackson
, Yusef Lateef
, Charles Mingus
, Esther Phillips
, Jimmy Scott
and Marion Williams
.
Cadena owned a record store in New Brunswick, New Jersey
and another in Newark that would feature jam session
s, and also established the recording label Choice Records. He went to Prestige Records
in October 1962 as head of A&R, replacing Esmond Edwards
, who left to take a similar position developing jazz artists at the Argo Records
label of Chess Records
. At Prestige he was responsible for overseeing the production and release of soul jazz
and other records by artists including Red Holloway
, Jack McDuff
and Shirley Scott
.
After relocating to the West Coast, and settling in Hermosa Beach, California
in the mid-1970s, Cadena promoted jazz in the LA area at such clubs as the Lighthouse Café
in Hermosa Beach and other influential area clubs.
A resident of Redondo Beach, California
, Cadena died at age 83 on April 9, 2008, at Little Company of Mary Hospital
in Torrance, California
due to pneumonia
. He had suffered a stroke
in 2007. He was survived by his wife, Gloria Cadena, as well as by a daughter, two sons and two grandsons. His son, Dez Cadena
, is a singer and guitarist who performed with the hardcore punk band Black Flag
and later played guitar with the Misfits.
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
with Savoy Records
Savoy Records
Savoy Records is an American record label specializing in jazz, R&B and gospel. Starting in the mid 1940s, Savoy played an important part in popularizing bebop.Savoy Records is an American record label specializing in jazz, R&B and gospel. Starting in the mid 1940s, Savoy played an important part...
and Prestige Records
Prestige Records
Prestige Records was a jazz record label founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock. The company was located at 203 South Washington Avenue in Bergenfield, New Jersey, and recorded hundreds of albums by many of the leading jazz musicians of the day, sometimes issuing them under the names of several...
who recorded gospel and jazz music in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, and helped popularize jazz music in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
.
Background
Cadena was born in Oklahoma CityOklahoma city
Oklahoma City is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma.Oklahoma City may also refer to:*Oklahoma City metropolitan area*Downtown Oklahoma City*Uptown Oklahoma City*Oklahoma City bombing*Oklahoma City National Memorial...
on September 26, 1924, and moved as a child to Newark, New Jersey
Newark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
. As a youth, he would visit African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
churches and travel to Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
to listen to the music. He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
and served for four years in the South Pacific
South West Pacific theatre of World War II
The South West Pacific Theatre, technically the South West Pacific Area, between 1942 and 1945, was one of two designated area commands and war theatres enumerated by the Combined Chiefs of Staff of World War II in the Pacific region....
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
He worked at Newark's Radio Record Shop, whose owner Herman Lubinsky also owned of Savoy Records. Cadena became a producer and A&R scout from 1954 to 1959 after his first sessions, in which he recorded trombonists J. J. Johnson and Kai Winding
Kai Winding
Kai Chresten Winding was a popular Danish-born American trombonist and jazz composer. He is well known for a successful collaboration with fellow trombonist J. J. Johnson.-Biography:...
in the first album of a lengthy collaboration; Cadena had first spoken to Johnson about a duo with Bennie Green
Bennie Green
Bennie Green was an American jazz trombonist.Born in Chicago, Illinois, Green worked in the orchestras of Earl Hines and Charlie Ventura, and recorded as bandleader through the 1950s and 1960s.-As leader:...
which led a duo after all, but with Winding as his partner. Together with drummer Kenny Clarke
Kenny Clarke
Kenny Clarke , born Kenneth Spearman Clarke, nicknamed "Klook" and later known as Liaqat Ali Salaam, was a jazz drummer and an early innovator of the bebop style of drumming...
, Cadena arranged series of one-time recordings with groups of musicians, recorded at sound engineer Rudy Van Gelder
Rudy Van Gelder
Rudy Van Gelder is an American recording engineer specializing in jazz.Often regarded as one of the most important recording engineers in music history, Van Gelder has recorded several thousand jazz sessions, including many widely recognized as classics, in a career spanning more than half a century...
's studio in Hackensack, New Jersey
Hackensack, New Jersey
Hackensack is a city in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States and the county seat of Bergen County. Although informally called Hackensack, it was officially named New Barbadoes Township until 1921. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was 43,010....
. His recordings at Savoy included work of artists Cannonball Adderley, Shirley Caesar
Shirley Caesar
Shirley Ann Caesar is an American Gospel music singer, songwriter and recording artist whose career has spanned six decades...
, John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist.Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally closest to Delta blues. He developed a 'talking blues' style that was his trademark...
, Milt Jackson
Milt Jackson
Milton "Bags" Jackson was an American jazz vibraphonist, usually thought of as a bebop player, although he performed in several jazz idioms...
, Yusef Lateef
Yusef Lateef
Dr. Yusef Lateef is an American Grammy Award-winning jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, educator and a spokesman for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community after his conversion to the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam in 1950.Although Lateef's main instruments are the tenor saxophone and flute, he is known for...
, Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music...
, Esther Phillips
Esther Phillips
Esther Phillips was an American singer. Phillips was known for her R&B vocals, but she was a versatile singer, also performing pop, country, jazz, blues and soul music.-Early life:...
, Jimmy Scott
Jimmy Scott
Jimmy Scott , aka "Little" Jimmy Scott, is an American jazz vocalist famous for his unusually high contralto voice which is due to Kallmann's syndrome, a very rare genetic condition. The condition stunted his growth at four feet eleven inches until, at age 37, he grew another 8 inches to the...
and Marion Williams
Marion Williams
Marion Williams was an American gospel singer.-Early years:Marion Williams was born in Miami, Florida, to a religiously devout mother and musically inclined father. She left school when she was nine years old to help support the family, and worked as a maid, a nurse, and in factories and...
.
Cadena owned a record store in New Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey, USA. It is the county seat and the home of Rutgers University. The city is located on the Northeast Corridor rail line, southwest of Manhattan, on the southern bank of the Raritan River. At the 2010 United States Census, the population of...
and another in Newark that would feature jam session
Jam session
Jam sessions are often used by musicians to develop new material, find suitable arrangements, or simply as a social gathering and communal practice session. Jam sessions may be based upon existing songs or forms, may be loosely based on an agreed chord progression or chart suggested by one...
s, and also established the recording label Choice Records. He went to Prestige Records
Prestige Records
Prestige Records was a jazz record label founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock. The company was located at 203 South Washington Avenue in Bergenfield, New Jersey, and recorded hundreds of albums by many of the leading jazz musicians of the day, sometimes issuing them under the names of several...
in October 1962 as head of A&R, replacing Esmond Edwards
Esmond Edwards
Esmond Edwards was an American photographer, record producer, and recording engineer. He worked for jazz dominated Prestige Records during the 1950s and early-1960s. He was originally hired by founder Bob Weinstock as a photographer for the record label...
, who left to take a similar position developing jazz artists at the Argo Records
Argo Records
Argo Records was started in December of 1955 to accommodate some of the rapidly growing recording activity at Chess Records. Originally the label was called Marterry, but bandleader Ralph Marterie objected, and within a couple of months the imprint was renamed Argo.Initially, Argo offered a...
label of Chess Records
Chess Records
Chess Records was an American record label based in Chicago, Illinois. It specialized in blues, R&B, soul, gospel music, early rock and roll, and occasional jazz releases....
. At Prestige he was responsible for overseeing the production and release of soul jazz
Soul jazz
Soul jazz is a development of jazz incorporating strong influences from blues, soul, gospel and rhythm and blues in music for small groups, often an organ trio featuring a Hammond organ.- Overview :Soul jazz is often associated with hard bop. Mark C...
and other records by artists including Red Holloway
Red Holloway
James W. "Red" Holloway is an American jazz tenor saxophonist.-Biography:Holloway started playing banjo and harmonica, switching to tenor sax when he was twelve years old...
, Jack McDuff
Jack McDuff
"Brother" Jack McDuff was an American jazz organist and organ trio bandleader who was most prominent during the hard bop and soul jazz era of the 1960s, often performing with an organ trio.-Career:...
and Shirley Scott
Shirley Scott
Shirley Scott was an American hard bop and soul-jazz organist. She was most known for working with her husband, Stanley Turrentine, and with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis...
.
After relocating to the West Coast, and settling in Hermosa Beach, California
Hermosa Beach, California
Hermosa Beach is a beachfront city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Its population was 19,506 at the 2010 census, up from 18,566 at the 2000 census....
in the mid-1970s, Cadena promoted jazz in the LA area at such clubs as the Lighthouse Café
Lighthouse Café
The Lighthouse Café is a nightclub located at 30 Pier Avenue in Hermosa Beach, California. It has been active as a jazz showcase since 1949 and, under the name "The Lighthouse", was one of the central West Coast jazz clubs from the 1950s through the late 1970s....
in Hermosa Beach and other influential area clubs.
A resident of Redondo Beach, California
Redondo Beach, California
Redondo Beach is one of the three Beach Cities located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 66,748 at the 2010 census, up from 63,261 at the 2000 census. The city is located in the South Bay region of the greater Los Angeles area.Redondo Beach was originally part of...
, Cadena died at age 83 on April 9, 2008, at Little Company of Mary Hospital
Little Company of Mary Hospital (Torrance)
Little Company of Mary Hospital is a hospital in Torrance, California, USA. The hospital was founded by the Sisters of the Little Company of Mary, and is part of the Providence Health & Services.- External links :*...
in Torrance, California
Torrance, California
Torrance is a city incorporated in 1921 and located in the South Bay region of Los Angeles County, California, United States. Torrance has of shore-front beaches on the Pacific Ocean, quieter and less well-known by tourists than others on the Santa Monica Bay, such as those of neighboring...
due to pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
. He had suffered a stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
in 2007. He was survived by his wife, Gloria Cadena, as well as by a daughter, two sons and two grandsons. His son, Dez Cadena
Dez Cadena
Dez Paul Cadena is an American punk rock singer and guitarist. He was the third vocalist and later rhythm guitarist for hardcore punk band Black Flag. Since 2001 Cadena has played guitar with the Misfits...
, is a singer and guitarist who performed with the hardcore punk band Black Flag
Black Flag (band)
Black Flag was an American punk rock band formed in 1976 in Hermosa Beach, California. The band was established by Greg Ginn, the guitarist, primary songwriter and sole continuous member through multiple personnel changes in the band...
and later played guitar with the Misfits.