Ozzie Cadena
Ozzie Cadena, he was THE producer/engineer for PRESTIGE RECORDS. When I met him it was during its transition from Bop to Funk( they called it Soul jazz). He started out as a scout for SAVOY records and worked with Rudy Van Gelder with all the famous boppers. He had stories.
Around 1970, he had a record shop THE GRAB BAG on the main drag of my hometown New Brunswick New Jersey where he stocked the store with all the leftover Prestige releases that were in storage. LPs were 1.99$ at a time where LPs went for 5 bucks.
This store is where I discovered many artists that had recorded great records but then
faded away as well as the top studio guys for Prestige that never bothered to lead bands in the club scene or got tired of it. We would spend hours combing through his stock then he would let us go into the back and check that stock. Leon Spencer, Melvin Sparks, Don Patterson. Bobby Jones, Kenny Gill, Ozzie also held jam sessions at The Grab Bag every Saturday where he brought in these guys. It was an unbelievable experience for a 13 year old who couldn't get into clubs.
When we found a cool looking LP by somebody we never heard of, Ozzie would regale
us with tales about the session and artists, he was literally the producer for 80% of the
catalog. He was tight with my teacher Harry Leahey and would tell me stories about
Harry that Harry would never tell me at my tender age. Like when Harry got lost in
Tokyo...drunk on sake, when Harry had to turn down Sonny Rollins because he had 5
kids and made way more money teaching. Harry was Mick Spillane of The Westies favorite guitarist and he played almost every Irish wedding in Hell's Kitchen.
Ozzie had to close shop when J&J and Rutgers bought every last foot of Albany st and
proceeded to tear it all down. Luckily he had accomplished a lot in educating us punks
in the 4 years he was there. One time I dropped in carrying my guitar case and asked
me to play him something. After I played he said, "Keep it up kid you got what it takes."
To hear this assessment from him motivated me to practice harder. A lot of musicians
and engineers never gave us kids the time of day, not that we cared that much, but to
get some attention from LEGENDS was very inspiring. Ozzie moved to LA in late 70's.
Postscript:
I had no idea his son was in the band called The Misfits, one of those bands who were
inspired by Kiss to wear clown makeup. They used Demeter Amps for repair and I met
him twice over at James' shop but I would never have put them together, since
Cadena is a common name and I would never have imagined the great Ozzie
Cadena's kid would be in a weird band and not be a jazz player, so I missed the
chance to reconnect with Ozzie in LA before he passed in 2008.
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