Jeff Hittman, Yoshitaka Uematsu, Valery Ponomarev, Larry Willis

LP version. Mosaic is a quintet date co-led by tenor saxophonist Jeff Hittman and drummer Yoshitaka Uematsu, recorded in New York on November 14, 1986 and released by Soul Note in 1988. Hittman shares the front line with trumpeter Valery Ponomarev, and the rhythm section is completed by Larry Willis on piano and Dennis Irwin on bass. Ponomarev, born in Moscow in 1943, had defected to Rome in 1971 and then made his way to New York to meet Art Blakey, who offered him a place in the band. He spent five years in the Jazz Messengers, from 1977 to 1982, and led his own group, Universal Language, from 1980.

The session was recorded in a single day at The Studio in New York, with Yoshiaki Masuo as engineer and Giovanni Bonandrini producing; Gennaro Carone did the mastering and Fred Bouchard wrote the liner notes. The repertoire mixes tunes by other players with two of Hittman's own. Hank Mobley's The Opener starts the record at almost seven minutes, followed by Steve Grossman's New York Bossa, the shortest piece at under four. Cedar Walton's Cedar's Blues appears twice, as Cedar's Blues I and Cedar's Blues II, the second closing the album. Hittman's pieces are Code E, under four minutes, and On Luck, the longest track at over seven. Giuliano Crivelli painted the cover.

This is a copy of the original 1988 Soul Note LP, catalogue number 121137-1, on 140 gram vinyl: CAM Jazz, which now owns the label, describes it as original stock recently found in its vaults. Side one holds The Opener, New York Bossa and Cedar's Blues I, side two the other three pieces.