Giuseppi Logan is a jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 musician originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

 who taught himself to play piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

 and drums

Drum kit

A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....

 before switching to reeds

Reed (instrument)

A reed is a thin strip of material which vibrates to produce a sound on a musical instrument. The reeds of most Woodwind instruments are made from Arundo donax or synthetic material; tuned reeds are made of metal or synthetics.-Single reeds:Single reeds are used on the mouthpieces of clarinets...

 at age 12. At the age of 15 he began playing with Earl Bostic

Earl Bostic

Earl Bostic was an American jazz and rhythm and blues alto saxophonist, and a pioneer of the post-war American Rhythm and Blues style. He had a number of popular hits such as "Flamingo", "Harlem Nocturne", "Temptation", "Sleep", "Special Delivery Stomp", and "Where or When", which showed off his...

 and later studied at the New England Conservatory. In 1964 he relocated to New York and became embroiled in the free jazz

Free jazz

Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and 1950s...

 scene.

Logan played alto and tenor saxophone

Saxophone

The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...

, bass clarinet

Clarinet

The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...

, flute

Flute

The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...

, piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

 and Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

i oboe

Oboe

The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...

. He collaborated with Archie Shepp

Archie Shepp

Archie Shepp is a prominent African-American jazz saxophonist. Shepp is best known for his passionately Afrocentric music of the late 1960s, which focused on highlighting the injustices faced by the African-Americans, as well as for his work with the New York Contemporary Five, Horace Parlan, and...

, Pharoah Sanders

Pharoah Sanders

Pharoah Sanders is a Grammy Award–winning American jazz saxophonist.Saxophonist Ornette Coleman once described him as "probably the best tenor player in the world." Emerging from John Coltrane's groups of the mid-60s Sanders is known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on...

 and Bill Dixon

Bill Dixon

Bill Dixon was an American musician, composer, visual artist, and educator. Dixon was one of the seminal figures in the free jazz movement. He played the trumpet, flugelhorn, and piano, often using electronic delay and reverberation as part of his trumpet playing.-Biography:Dixon hailed from...

 before forming his own quartet made up of pianist Don Pullen

Don Pullen

Don Pullen was an American jazz pianist and organist. Pullen developed a strikingly individual style throughout his career. He composed masterworks ranging from blues to bebop and modern jazz...

, bassist Eddie Gomez

Eddie Gomez

Edgar "Eddie" Gómez is a Puerto Rican jazz double bassist born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, perhaps most notable for his work done with the Bill Evans trio from 1966 to 1977.-Biography:...

 and percussionist Milford Graves

Milford Graves

Milford Graves is an American jazz drummer and percussionist, most noteworthy for his early avant-garde contributions in the early 1960s with Paul Bley and the New York Art Quartet...

. After Pullen's departure, pianist Dave Burrell

Dave Burrell

Davis Burrell is an American jazz instrumentalist, most notably on the piano. He has worked for many jazz musicians including Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders, Marion Brown and David Murray.- Biography :...

 joined the group. Logan was a member of Byard Lancaster

Byard Lancaster

Byard Lancaster is a jazz multi-instrumentalist whose primary instrument is the alto saxophone. He attended two colleges, one of them for music, before eventually deciding to pursue an education at the Berklee College of Music, then moving to New York...

's band and toured with and appeared on records by Patty Waters

Patty Waters

Patty Waters is a jazz vocalist, best known for her free jazz recordings in the 1960s for the ESP-Disk label. Although she has rarely recorded since then, she is more and more recognized as a vocal innovator whose influence extends beyond jazz....

. He recorded two albums for the ESP Disk record label and later appeared on an album by Roswell Rudd

Roswell Rudd

Roswell Rudd is a Grammy Award-nominated American jazz trombonist and composer....

 on the Impulse! label. A 1965 press release from ESP-Disk

ESP-Disk

ESP-Disk is a New York-based record label, founded in 1964 by lawyer Bernard Stollman.From the beginning, the label's goal has been to provide its recording artists with complete artistic freedom, unimpeded by any record company interference or commercial expectations—a philosophy summed-up by the...

 indicates that a third album was planned, but never released, possibly due to Logan's increasingly erratic behavior. This title was supposed to have been ESP-1018, "The Giuseppi Logan Chamber Ensemble In Concert", but this catalogue number was eventually assigned to an album by The Fugs

The Fugs

The Fugs are a band formed in New York in late 1964 by poets Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg, with Ken Weaver on drums. Soon afterward, they were joined by Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber of the Holy Modal Rounders...

.

Vintage footage of Logan comprises a short film by Edward English. Anecdotes about the man are scarce, but those that exist illustrate his influence over those he worked with. Several of these are below.

Bill Dixon

Bill Dixon

Bill Dixon was an American musician, composer, visual artist, and educator. Dixon was one of the seminal figures in the free jazz movement. He played the trumpet, flugelhorn, and piano, often using electronic delay and reverberation as part of his trumpet playing.-Biography:Dixon hailed from...

 on Logan:

"[In the summer of 1964], Giuseppi Logan was 'studying' with me, meaning: he wanted to know certain things, and I needed an alto player, so he played all of my concerts, and occasionally I would let him have some of his things played in the group. He had a great deal of difficulty with getting people to play his music. I think at the time I was the only trumpet player who could play his music, and I loved playing it.

"No one sounded in an ensemble like Giuseppi. He held his head back all the way, explaining once, 'This way my throat is completely open,' so he could have more air coming through his windpipe. He used to pride himself on playing up to the fourth octave on alto. The things that made him different as an improvisor were the way he placed his notes, that sound he got, and then what the others in his group played behind him. His pieces were very attractive for those reasons. Giuseppi had his own points of view about music, which is what this music is supposed to be about. We got along."

ESP Disk's Bernard Stollman

Bernard Stollman

Bernard Stollman is an American lawyer and the founder of the ESP-Disk record label.He was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and grew up in Plattsburgh, upstate New York, where his parents owned a chain of women's wear stores. When he was 16, his family moved to Forest Hills, Queens, and he...

 on Logan:

"Giuseppi was doing an awful lot of drugs—he burned out, well, actually, he flipped out and never came back. I think that helps explain what happened to Giuseppi. Also, he was mentally ill to some degree and he attacked me once, just randomly. He would assault people without any warning; I loved his music, however, and when he did his first session, resulting from the October Revolution [ESP 1007, Giuseppi Logan Quartet], Milford Graves and he filed through the studio and as they walked in to record, Giuseppi turned to me and said “if you rob me, I’ll kill you.” Milford was mortified—he had asked me to record Giuseppi—I’d given him a record date and he threatened me with death.

At one point, I was standing with the engineer in the control room, and I thought the piece they were playing was stunningly beautiful. It sounded totally spontaneous, as if they were ad-libbing and commenting like a gorgeous conversation. Suddenly, I heard a ‘thwuuunk,’ and I realized that the tape had run out. The engineer and I were so absorbed, we hadn’t been paying attention. I thought “oh God, this remarkable thing is lost. It was interrupted in the middle, and it’s gone.” Richard Alderson was the engineer, and he got on the intercom and said “Giuseppi, the tape ran out.” Without a pause, Giuseppi said “take it back to before where it stopped and we’ll take it from there.” So he did, he wound it back and played some bars of it and took down the record button, and they resumed exactly what they were doing—there was no way of telling where one or the other ended. It was unreal."

Milford Graves on Logan:

"The reports that I've received is that he is still alive. He was spotted up in Harlem, New York. That's what people say. I don't know. I was approached to go up to Harlem to seek him out. Somebody spotted him in a hotel on 125th Street and I haven't had the opportunity to do that. Someone said they saw him, but I don't know. I wouldn't say that he is still alive. That was the latest on him. I last saw Giuseppi Logan in the Seventies and he wasn't in good shape. He was in the streets. He is a question mark whether he is still alive. Hopefully, he is. I was the one who told Bernard Stollman (founder of ESP) about Giuseppi Logan. I met Bernard Stollman through the New York Art Quartet. He wanted to record me and in turn, I told Giuseppi that I have some time because I'm a young guy and instead of me taking this record date and being the leader, I gave him the record date and so he took the record date. It was 1965 when we did that together."

Beset with personal problems,Logan vanished from the music scene in the early '70s and for over three decades his whereabouts were unknown; however, in 2008 he was filmed by a Christian mission group just after he'd returned to New York after years in and out of institutions in the Carolinas.. Around this same time filmmaker Suzannah Troy made the first of many short films of Logan practicing in his preferred hangout, Tompkins Square Park

Tompkins Square Park

Tompkins Square Park is a 10.5 acre public park in the Alphabet City section of the East Village neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is square in shape, and is bounded on the north by East 10th Street, on the east by Avenue B, on the south by East 7th Street, and on the...

. Subsequently Logan was the subject of a major piece by Pete Gershon in the spring 2009 edition of Signal to Noise Magazine, which detailed the events surrounding his 'comeback' gig at the Bowery Poetry Club

Bowery Poetry Club

The Bowery Poetry Club is a New York City poetry performance space founded by Bob Holman in 2002. Located at 308 Bowery, between Bleecker and Houston Streets in Manhattan's East Village, the BPC provides a home base for established and upcoming artists...

 in February 2009.

On April 6, 2009 Giuseppi performed, with a group, at Local 269 in NYC as part of the RUCMA performance series. Later that year he appeared in the short documentary film Water in the Boat by David Gutierrez Camps, where his music improvisations formed the soundtrack of the film.

As leader

• The Giuseppi Logan Quartet (1964)
• More (1965)
• The Giuseppi Logan Quintet (2009)

As sideman

With Roswell Rudd

Roswell Rudd

Roswell Rudd is a Grammy Award-nominated American jazz trombonist and composer....

• Everywhere
  Everywhere (Roswell Rudd album)
  Everywhere is an album by American jazz trombonist Roswell Rudd featuring performances recorded in 1966 for the Impulse! label. The tracks were rereleased on a compilation Mixed in 1998 with performances by the Cecil Taylor Unit originally released as part of Gil Evans' Into the Hot .-Reception:The...
  
  (Impulse!, 1966) (also released as part of Mixed
  Mixed (album)
  Mixed is a compilation album of two avant-garde jazz sessions featuring performances by the Cecil Taylor Unit and the Roswell Rudd Sextet...
  
  in 1998)