It’s September 14th, this year marks 50-years of the start of recording at the Van Gelder Studio in New Jersey of Freddie Hubbard’s Grammy winning album “First Light“. I wrote about it on this date last year[1]On This Day: First Light – Creed Taylor Produced (ctproduced.com) This year, I have a video of the title track from the album, along […]
Spanish Grease
For my second post for Creed Taylor Month, 2021, I wanted to take a brief look at an amazing 1965 album by Willie Bobo, “Spanish Grease“. The album was recorded 56-years ago, almost to the day on August 30th and September 8th, 1965 at Van Gelder Studios, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Bobo, died 38-years ago this month, aged just 49, […]
Creed Taylor Month – September 2021
Creed Taylor month was announced and first held in 1968. For background and press cuttings from that time, see this entry. There are lots of indications that the music created by the artists of CTI and KUDU is as popular now as Creed could have ever hoped. In the last year, as well as my own #ctproduced Instagram id[1]ctproduced posts […]
On This Day: Lien Sale
Manhattan it wasn’t, but if you were a “bridges and tunnels” commuter who didn’t drive, Newsday was your go-to read. In the days before smartphones, before MP3 players, podcasts, and web pages, you’d board the MTA bus or train, claim your seat if you were lucky, and either put on a CD, and FM radio, get out a paperback. The […]
SFJAZZ Honor Chuck Stewart
Photographer Chuck Stewart is a legend in jazz circles. Stewart took pictures for more than 100 of the albums that Creed Taylor produced. On June 19th, SFJAZZ, the organization behind the San Francisco Jazz Festival for about 40-years, unveiled a public installation to celebrate Stewart’s work to celebrate Juneteenth. The installation is made up of 31 large scale black and […]
The Three R’s
Rereleases, Remaster, and Record Store Day The first Record Store Day (RSD) 2021 was a disappointment for me. 2021 will have two so called “drops”, let’s hope the July 17th drop will add some more releases, while there are some interesting jazz albums, it could be better. Their full list is online. Kyle Simpler has a good list of jazz […]
The 2021 Reissue List
I get occasional emails from readers asking if I know if this album is on CD, or if there is a vinyl pressing available new? While I do buy occasional new vinyl and CD’s, it’s usually only to get a remastered version of something I already have, especially from the early 1960’s, or when I have the mono version. I’ll […]
Full Color Fidelity Jazz
While most of us know Creed Taylors productions for their lavish gatefold covers, more often than not adorned with exotic, artful, and amazing color photographs by Pete Turner, the music Creed produced also made a number of firsts in other ways. This entry discuss the first ever vinyl record to be included in a consumer oriented magazine. It includes a […]
The ABC of Specialty Recording
[This post was originally written as part of the 2021 post, Happy Birthday Mr. Taylor and also continues and replaces an earlier post on the specialty recording period of Creed Taylor’s career.] After graduating from Duke University, 2-years in the Army, one year of which was spent in Korea, Creed Taylor arrived in New York City in 1954, aged 24-years […]
Happy Birthday Mr Taylor.
33,602 days ago, Creed Taylor was born in Lynchburg, Virginia, Happy 92nd birthday Creed. Note: This post originally included a detailed post about Creed’s early, “specialty years” at ABC Paramount. This post includes early details of Mr Taylor’s career, including as far as I’m aware, for the first time, a picture of Mr Taylor in the Duke Cavaliers from 1949. […]