CT 501 – La Jean – Hubert Laws
First single on CTI will be “Let It Be” by Laws, which has just been shipped.”
Creed Taylor – February 28th, 1970 Billboard magazine “Taylor Bows Label – In Deal With King”
Side A: La Jean (2:30)
Side B: Let It Be (2:15)
(from Crying Song)
Hubert Laws
Issues: CTI CT 501 [45]
Master No.: CT 501 A/CT 501 B
Recorded: July 1969
Released: February 1970
Not sure what happened, but clearly from both the promo and green label general release, La Jean is the A-Side, with Let It Be the B-side, rather than the other way around. Interestingly, Let It Be was also the B-Side of CT 505, and is the same version.
La Jean is a straight lift from the album, Crying Song, and runs the same length. Let It Be is a slightly truncated version that runs 2:15, rather than the 3:30 version on the album. The album was recorded July 23-24 at the American Sound Studios in Memphis, and September 23-24 at Rudy Van Gelder, Englewood Cliffs, NJ studio.
The NJ sessions were partially used to provide overdubs for the tracks recorded in Memphis. This was a technique used by Taylor frequently.
In August of 1969, Herbie Mann, a flutist that had worked 10-years before on many Taylor albums, at Verve, recorded an Atlantic release called Memphis Underground. It was recorded just 8-weeks after Elvis had recorded his Elvis in Memphis at the same studios with The Memphis Boys a rhythm section. That was virtually the same lineup that Mann and Laws would use. The engineer for the Hubert Laws tracks, Tom Cogbill, had played in the rhythm section for Mann. It’s not known why the Laws sessions were held in Memphis, except obviously Taylor knew what Mann was capable of, and the American Sound Studios was on a roll of hit albums. Mann had released an A&M CTI Album, Glory of Love 2-years earlier under a special deal one off deal with Atlantic records.
SAMPLED
The Way It Iz – Guru, KaiBee and Lil’ Dap – included soundtrack 1974 film Rhyme and Reason.
LISTEN AND MORE INFO
- Discogs Master Release
- La Jean via music.youtube
- Let It Be(3:30 Album version) via music.youtube
Taylor’s Dozen | > CT 502 Kathy McCord – Take Away This Pain