CT 509 Van Lingle Mongo – Dave Frishberg Side A: Van Lingle Mungo (2:45)Side B: Nasty Nasty Habit (2:25)(from Oklahoma Toad)Dave FrishbergIssues: CTI CT 509 [45]Master No.: CT 509 A/CT 509 BRecorded: Prob. late 1969. Associated Recording Studios in New York; CTI release re-engineered and overdubbed by Rudy Van Gelder, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.Released: Prob. August 15th, 1970; runout etchings on […]
CT 1000 – The “popular” label
This post is an outgrowth of a lot of material written originally for a review of Dave Frishberg’s Oaklahoma Toad album. It will be updated over time. Doug Payne says of this early CTI period: Creed Taylor left the auspices of A & M to initiate CTI as an independent entity in May 1970. This little known part of CTI’s history spanned […]
Oklahoma Toad – Dave Frishberg
CTI 1004 – Oklahoma Toad – Dave Frishberg Herb Alpert, in one of his interviews with Dr. David Schroeder, in the NYU Steinhardt Jazz Studies series, said: Masters used to be floating around in the Sixties, someone would record a group, they’d play it for you and if you liked it, you could bring it into the company for distribution. […]
Happy Birthday Don Felder, Flow
Born on September 21st, 1947, it’s happy birthday to Don Felder. Don’s autobiography, The Eagles Heaven and Hell, pretty much lays out the story of how the band Flow came to record for CTI; how Flow were one of the bands on the forefront of Jazz rock and came to release on of the first albums on the independent CTI […]
CTI For You?
Need some artwork for a bare wall? CTI and Kudu Records fan? I had these original pages from Billboard Magazine framed a few years back. They are standard frames but with custom mats made. The advertisements are genuine CTI/KUDU advertisements from Billboard magazines, they are not prints or reproductions. I’ve finally, after many years splashed out and had frames and […]
On This Day: First Light
On this day, September 14th, 1971 – Freddie Hubbard went into the studio to record what would become his Grammy winning album, First Light. Recorded over two days, the 14th and 16th, and Rudy Van Gelder’s Englewood Cliffs studio, using an ensemble cast containing many of the CTI “All Stars” with arrangements and conducting by Don Sebesky. Among the sidemen […]
Gary Peacock – Gone, But Plenty To Remember
My only exposure to Gary Peacock was mid-1985, New York City. Sometime one hot Saturday, after wandering through a bunch of art galleries around the East Village, I came across a small cinema, probably on 2nd Ave. It was showing Michael Snow’s “New York Eye and Ear Control” film on repeat. I’d never heard of the film, but at just […]
September is Creed Taylor month
The August 26th, 1968 issue of “Records, Promotion, Music” (RPM) Magazine, page-4 declared “September is Creed Taylor month in Canada”. The campaign was announced by Quality’s National Promotion Manager, Ed Lawson. The campaign and messaging must have worked to spread the music and work of Creed, because come September, a similar campaign was announced for October 1968 to be “Creed […]
Remembering Chris Connor
Chris Connor died August 29th, 2009. Chris was the first of Creed Taylor’s production career and became a major success. Taylor and Connor would never work together after both leaving Bethlehem in 1956. Remarkably, Chris and Creed were both in their twenties at the time. Those Bethlehem releases were never marked, “produced by Creed Taylor” but it would eventually happen […]
Remembering Rudy Van Gelder
Rudy Van Gelder died August 25th, 2016. Rudy was as responsible for the CTI/KUDU sound, the sound of Creed Taylor’s “new jazz”, as anyone. Rudy didn’t play the instruments, he didn’t decide of the tracks, he didn’t do the arrangements, and the style of play, and overall sound wasn’t Rudy. He did though make sure that he captured every moment […]