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 […]
Idris on CD
Thanks to reader Benjamin in Germany, he got in touch to point out that that two of Idris Muhammad’s CDs are now available by European re-issue label, Music On CD. KUDU albums have not faired as well as the CTI albums when it comes to re-mastering and re-releases. While the […]
Happy Birthday to Cap’n Matthews
It’s Happy Birthday to David Matthews, although by the time I get this posted, today, Thursday March 4th, Dave’s birthday will have passed where he lives in Japan. If Bob James was my gateway drug to the music of Creed Taylor productions, David Matthews was definitely my drug of choice […]
Happy Born Day: Hank Crawford
Bennie Ross “Hank” Crawford, Jr. born December 21, 1934, Memphis, Tennessee, died January 29, 2009, Memphis, Tennessee. To celebrate the day of Hank Crawford’s birth, as well as my usual notes, research, and a few unique finds, I have a mix of some examples of Hank’s work, and a 4-part […]
Remembering Grover Washington, Jr.
Just 5-days after celebrating his 56th birthday, Grover had a heart attack in the green room, after performing and recording four songs for “The Saturday Early Show”, at CBS Studios in New York City. He was pronounced dead at 7:30pm that day, December 17th, 1999, St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital in New […]
The Grover Washington Birthday Playlist
Playlist and notes for Happy Born Day: Grover Washington, Jr. – Creed Taylor Produced (ctproduced.com) # Title Artist Notes Time 1 Who Is Sylvia Johnny Hammond Recorded just a month after Grover’s “Inner City Blues” album, and before the album was released, Washington was again sideman to Hammond for his […]