Marc Cohen [Copland], electric alto saxophone and tenor saxophone.

From the liner notes of Friends:

Marc Cohen [Copland] is from Philadelphia home of all good saxophonists. He has played with Chico Hamilton and was with Dreams for a short time. His alto saxophone is modified by an octave divider, two wah-wah pedals, a fuzz-tone, and a tape echo box. His tenor sax is quite ordinary.

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Friends was completely Marc Cohen’s record. He put together the musicians, the compositions, and altogether functioned fully as the “leader” of the date. It was only at the last second he bowed to his instincts (and, I believe, the sentiments of the era) and made it a collective album. It was much harder for us as an independent record company to promote this kind of record, but we were above all, a label oriented towards the artists’ wishes.

Marc was a legend on the Columbia University campus, being their only jazzman of the time to make it in the professional world. We lost touch after Friends; we were a pretty terrible record company and didn’t really know how to properly nuture relationships with the artists we released. But it made some sense when I heard he’d dropped out for ten years and studied piano, which was musically logically, given his approach to composition and playing.

Marc’s completely rebuilt his reputation as an amazing musician known as Marc Copland with a sizable discography. Buy a few. If you’re as knocked out by his innovation on Friends, you’ll feel the same way about these discs.

Click here to listen to “5/8 Tune,” one of Marc’s composition’s from the album.