Hubert Laws (born November 10, 1939) is one of the most pervasive, and impressive artists to appear on Creed Taylor, CTI productions. While others, notably Bob James, Don Sebesky, and Dave Matthews through their arrangements had a bigger impact on the overall sound; and George Benson, Grover Washington, Jr, Esther Phillips, Bob James as a performer, became bigger stars and […]
CT 509
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 […]
CTI Artists on TV
Enjoy two great live performances from artists from CTI. Both comes from VHS tapes I managed to buy from ebay. I was hoping to avoid getting into converting VHS tapes, as they are often more trouble than they are worth. On the full length video of the 1976 awards, George Benson performs his hit “Breezin’” but his years of work […]
Spotify Does CTI
I’ve become a recent convert to Spotify, thanks to my Wife, and there are some great CTI Playlists on Spotify. My music collection spans some 4,500 albums, approximately two thirds are vinyl, of what’s left are of mix of CD’s and digital music MP3’s bought mostly from Amazon Music. I also have a home streaming music service, based on the […]
On This Day: Black Out
(You can play Black Out while you read, via one of these streaming services. Youtube Music is free, but is ad-supported) My enthusiasm for CTI, and all things Creed Taylor was driven by two amazing websites put together by jazz historian and CTI enthusiast Douglas Payne. A few years ago, I was fortunate to make contact with Doug, and while […]