Joe Beck was born July 29th, 1945 in Philadelphia PA and died in July 2008, only in his 60’s from cancer, as so many of his peers did. His 1975 KUDU album isn’t a jazz offering for the purists, but it’s among my favorites from that period. If you are […]
Grammys: Two Drummers, A Bass Player And A Trumpeter
Best Wishes to Ron Carter, Jack DeJohnette, Steve Gadd and Randy Brecker at this Sunday’s 64th GRAMMY awards. While Ron was the only artist to record a leader album produced by Creed Taylor, with both CTI and KUDU albums, Jack, Steve and Randy were just as integral to the success […]
NEA Jazz Masters 2022
Congratulations to this year’s musicians recognized as 2022 NEA Jazz Masters—Stanley Clarke, Donald Harrison, Jr., Billy Hart, and Cassandra Wilson. There will be a concert tonight live in San Francisco that will also be live streamed and available via many radio stations. For details of the coverage online and on radio, the concert […]
On This Day: Cajun Sunrise
OK, well perhaps not on this day, but certainly in March 1978, 44-years ago, Hank Crawford and David Matthews were in Electric Lady Studios on W 8th Street in New York City, laying down the final tracks for the last Kudu album, Hank Crawford’s “Cajun Sunrise”. In this post I’ll […]
On This Day: Stay The Course
I have almost the entire CTI/KUDU catalog on a USB hard drive in the car. It’s almost time to replace those old lossy versions with the original CD copies I’ve bought, or the re-engineered, re-ripped versions I’ve worked on over the last 5-years. Many of them date from the “CTI […]
My Career, My Music, My Sidemen – ‘Bijou’ and Philly
I’ve written about Grover Washington Jr. numerous times[1]Grover Washington Jr. – Creed Taylor Produced (ctproduced.com), including on his born-day in 2020. In that article I pulled together various threads to document how Grover got his chance to record for and be produced by Creed Taylor. This article originally appeared in […]
Updates on 3R’s and New Old Stock
I’ve made quite a few updates to the The 2021 Reissue List – for the first time including a few of the CTI/KUDU releases that were acquired by Gregg Kostelich owner of Get Hip Recordings and are new old stock, original pressings. If you have any others, please get in […]
Dr Smith Has Left The House
Success takes the right people, with the right skills, at the right time and the right place. You can’t copy or replicate success. And so it was that in 1965, having left Jack McDuff’s Quartet, George Benson set out on his own. Benson hired Buffalo NY native, Lonnie Smith to […]
Farewell, But Not Goodbye, Doc Gibbs
The last few weeks have bought sad news of the passing of more people from the jazz world. Of course all the major websites and even traditional news outlets covered the death of legendary jazz elder, George Wein. Many also covered the loss of George Mraz, double bass, and occasional […]
The Story of the CTI All-Stars Live
This is the story of perhaps the greatest all star jazz band ever, as well their later derivatives. The performances, the recordings, the artists and more. It’s a long read, press play, and read on. While you read and listen, ask yourself what you would pay today to see a […]