Fred Seibert writes: OK, here’s a completely obscure cover. It’s to a record I produced in 1973 for my blues & jazz label Oblivion Records. The artist is a alto player called Marc Cohen (now, interestingly, a pianist called Marc Copeland), though it’s more often known as a session of John Abercrombie’s, the guitarist who was a last minute addition; also at the last minute Marc, never a self promoter, insisted the session be released as a group date called “Friends”. He had graduated Columbia University, and we recorded at the college radio station), went on to play with Chico Hamilton. Marc came up to the station to try out an idea he had with a pick-up and exhoplex. This was after the Tony Williams Lifetime, but before Mahavishnu Orchestra. I was overwhelmed by the then-freshness of the sound so we cut this date.

Oh, the cover. Sam Steinberg was an unhealthy guy from the Bronx (4F in World War I) without an education, whose Mom had been bringing him to the Columbia campus since he was a kid. Somewhere in his 60s (in the 1960s) he picked up some paints and illustration board and pooof! he was a painter. Nowadays he’d be known as an ‘outsider’ artist and be known the world over. Then, he was a kind of campus mascot, selling his “boids” and cats and Elvis’s (long before the King’s death) for $2.50 (eventually climbing to $5.50 in the 80s). We’d all adopted him, and rarely would you visit a Columbia dorm room without four or five hanging on the walls. Anyway, since we were recording a Columbia grad at the Columbia station with a Columbia producer, I figured why not? I ‘commissioned’ Sam for $10 (four times his asking price) and a new pair of $50 shoes (his request), well beyond our normal cover budget. When it was released it was universally derided, unless, of course, the reviewer went to Columbia. The record on the other hand was praised as “innovative, well worth your attention” by DownBeat and others.

(11 votes, average: 3.45 out of 5)

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