To hear Mouzza Publications co-founders Bob and Iris Levin talk about it, they never meant to have their own business.
“The whole company was accidental,” Bob, the author of Mouzza’s inaugural book A Brief History of Howard, laughed.
The Decatur-based couple has always had the complementary skills to make a successful venture – the husband brings creativity while the wife orchestrates the logistics – but it wasn’t until the economy took a turn for the worse that they really had any impetus.
“I was afraid to have my own start-up,” Iris said. “But we figured the only way anything was going to happen was if we were going to make it happen ourselves.”
Mouzza’s first two artists were sitting right in front of them. Bob himself was working on the aforementioned novel, and the Levins’ daughter, Amy, is a supremely talented jazz vibraphone player who at the age of 15 recorded her first EP (What I Did Over My Summer Vacation). The family had simply not thought about combining their talents under one label until the fall of 2008.
Today, that idea of finding the extraordinary in the everyday is a theme that pervades the company.
“You can be looking at something, just staring right at it, and because you don’t expect to see it, you don’t see it,” Bob said with a smile. “Certain important things have been in front of you your whole life, but you don’t notice them.”
An example of stumbling upon just what’s needed is seen in the discovery of the Amy Levin Quartet’s new bass player, Ramon Pooser. Just when former member David Tyberg had to leave for business reasons, Bob happened upon a recording of the sublime Emory music instructor on YouTube.
Such good fortune has everyone involved in the highest of spirits, as evidenced by the little jokes customers will find peppered throughout the products. Howard Stein, the protagonist of Bob’s book, has numerous recordings available on the Internet and is listed as the guitarist for Amy’s album, and a certain “Robert Levin” (Bob’s name, but also that of a famous author who wrote the liner notes for John Coltrane’s masterpiece Blue Train) is credited there as well.
“It’s not making fun of you; we’re all in on it, so we can all enjoy it,” Bob cracked. “Those ‘eureka’ moments are my idea of fun.”
Iris agrees. She read A Brief History of Howard several times without noticing a key theme (Bob grins as he says he “put it in neon”), but when she did get it, it was all the more worthwhile.
“Superficial things can be fun,” she said. “But they’re not nearly as satisfying or rewarding as that which takes a little work to appreciate.”
It might take extra effort, but finding excellence in unexpected places is what Mouzza Publications is all about.
