This website, ctproduced.com , is a fan website and not associated in anyway with the late Creed Taylor, his family, or CTI Records etc. or any of the current companies that own copyright or trademark work originally produced by Mr. Taylor his companies.
If you want to get in touch, please contact me via this form
Background.
1970 and 1971 were pivotal years in music. The industry and music consumers were moving on from the pillars of pop and country to rock of a number of different styles. Electric instruments, large scale concerts and higher quality recording techniques were starting to change everything. In many countries, not least the USA, social and racial protects were becoming increasingly important.
Creed Taylor, by 1970, had been in the industry as a producer for some 15-years. This website was started in 2019. More than fifty, yes 50 years since then. Creed Taylor was 91-years old this year and for my part I thought some form of comprehensive retrospective was well overdue.
In 1970, Creed established himself as one of the premier jazz producers. He had started and thrived at some of the famous jazz record labels including Bethlehem, Impulse and Verve. Taylor had really cut a groove at Herb Alperts A&M label with the CTI imprint. 1970 saw Taylor really break loose and form his own label, his own companies, and record many new artists and well as a continuing loyalty to many artists that he had produced already.
Taylors style by 1970 was disliked by many jazz aficionados, some of the later albums on A&M CTI were very popular but had moved away from the trad’, bop, post-bop, free improvisational and mainstream jazz into a more orchestrated, generally po-oriented and successful style of jazz. Many blamed Taylor for the smooth jazz era, and many of the associated acts which played less hard, more mainstream and more cover tracks. However, looking back on those times, no one knew where the “sound” would go in the late 60’s and early 70’s.
Taylor was a shrewd producer and businessman, and jazz musicians wanted and deserved some of the new found post-war prosperity. Taylor took them there, and many of us, including me, went along for the ride.
Why this website?
There is a lot of fantastic material about Creed, his labels and his artists, all over the Internet. There are some fascinating autobiographies, I even hear a rumor one may be in the works for Creed Taylor. Doug Payne has a widely quoted and referenced website that has exhaustively cataloged the release of CTI and its related labels. But there isn’t a great place to go to cross reference all of the information throughout Creeds career.
I’m going to cover as many of the artists and albums Taylor produced over an amazing career. Look at the people, the music, the artists, and the businesses involved and try to put together a referenceable resource that ties all that together.
I’m lucky that I’ve been able to make contact with Doug, and he has agreed to let me embed or copy his material. He’s also been an invaluable resource for questions. I’m not an expert on jazz or the works of Creed Taylor, just a fan that wants to share his work and the work of hundreds of artists he worked with.
Structure
Each week I’ll try to post an entry, or two entries. Everything will be tagged with the main artist name and the label it was recorded for. For example, all albums released on Verve, all material by Bob James.
Here are the major content categories I plan to cover
Early Jazz – Specialty Recordings – Bethlehem Records – ABC-Paramount – Verve – A&M CTI – CTI – Kudu – CTI2 – CTI3
and some minor categories Salvation – Three Brothers Records – Greene Street Records
From time to time, and especially as I start to make regular posts, I’ll be covering a number of topics related to either my other favorite music and artists NOT Produced by Creed Taylor, or related to the lessons I’ve learned while digitizing my entire collection of some 2,500 albums, 500 CD’s, a few 10-inch album releases and a few specialist singles. I’ll be using this process to try to work how how to best host or link to the actual music and albums so you can hear it for yourself.
Copyright
Except for materials in the public domain, all of the content on “Creed Taylor Produced” also known as ctproduced, is the property of ctproduced or its content suppliers and is protected by copyright laws. This includes text, graphics, logos, icons, images and software. The compilation of all content on this site is the exclusive property of ctproduced and is also protected by copyright laws. Any other use, including the unauthorized reproduction, modification, distribution, transmission, republication, display, or performance is prohibited.
USE OF ctproduced CONTENT
The whole or any portion of this site may not be reproduced, duplicated, copied, sold, resold, or used for any commercial purpose that is not expressly permitted by ctproduced.
ctproduced COPYRIGHT POLICY
ctproduced will block access to and/or remove any material that it believes in good faith to be copyrighted material that has been illegally copied and reused on the website, YouTube channel or social media pages.
What to do if you think a copyright is being infringed:
- Identify where or whom the material is from.
- Tell us how the rightful owner may be contacted.
- Send us a statement, authorised by the copyright holder, that the material is an infringement of copyright.
- Send the notice of Copyright infringement via email to: copyright@ctproduced.com
Once received ctproduced will:
- Delete the infringing material.
- Notify the provider of the infringing material.
What can you do?
Leave comments. Like something, don’t like it, agree, disagree, leave a comment. Specific questions about artists or recording from the Creed Taylor pantheon? Leave a comment or question, I have the time, I’ll try to research and provide an answer. I’m not an expert and by doing this website am not trying to establish myself as one. I just want to share my post-IT career hobby for others to enjoy.
Disclaimer.
This website, and its creator, Mark Cathcart, are not licensed or approved to distribute, sell, or transfer digital music. Any music hosted on this site is hosted under “fair use” rules. Content provided here, both hosted, and linked is provided to show, explain, educate and inform readers. No content is specifically provided for download. Links, where provided, are for readers to appreciate the works.
Photographs used are sourced from original press and company issued promotional materials and used in as the original creators intended. The author and owner of this website does not make money from advertising, affiliate links or any links taken by readers.
I put it together initially as a fun exercise to enable me to share the music of my life, almost literally my life.
It is, and will likely remain, a work in progress.
Updates: Jan 5th, 2023 – general tidy up, added copyright.
Join me on Mastodon where I’m @ctproduced@jazztodon.com