33,967 days ago, Creed Taylor was born in Lynchburg, Virginia on May 13th, 1929, , Happy 93rd birthday Creed.
The more I learn about Creed Taylor, the more it’s obvious that Creed let his productions speak for him and the artists. There are remarkably few videos or film that include Creed, that’s both a statement about the time where his music was popular, but also a statement about the man himself.
There are a number of written/press/media interviews with Creed, but they are often focused on promoting the music or artist of the moment, rather than giving us insight into Creed the man. I’m still chasing down some other leads and if you have, or know of video/film of Creed, please get in touch. Given this website has some 950+ followers, I hope you can come up with some ideas, I’ll do the work.
Earlier this year I spent the best part of a month trying to track down a full copy of the Jimmy Smith, 1965 film that was made by DTV, while Jimmy performed live in Hamburg[1]https://www.idfa.nl/en/film/997f9541-2705-452c-a4d1-fc19dc92cdeb/smith-james-o-organist-usa-europe-part-1. The full documentary includes many backstage segments as well as film from NYC. I was hoping that Creed was in one or more of them. It is available as part of a Klaus Wildenhahn 5x DVD boxset, do you have it? Can we make a deal??
In the meantime, I was delighted to see that the Jake Feinberg has released all his interviews on various platforms including Youtube, Spotify and others including his own website[2]The Creed Taylor Interview | Jake Feinberg Show | Part-1 – The Creed Taylor Interview Set II | Jake Feinberg Show | Part-2.
Here are my posts for Creed’s 92nd, and 91st birthdays.
Coming next will be my look at “The Story Of A&M”.
Here is the German documentary of Jimmy Smith in Hamburg, from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6s5rnLhcUQ
Kim, thanks. Doug Payne and I were discussing this last week, it’s neither “fish nor fowl”. Doug wanted more music, I wanted more context and detail. We know there is because the actual German direct/producer Klaus Wildenhahn documentary was actual 90-minutes. I also know that Creed Taylor was both in London and Hamburg for both concerts that are included in the documentary. As far as I’m aware, it’s only available via a 5x DVD, 14-film box set, and is not on any streaming services. The youtube video is only 55-mins.
I have a link in my scratchpad for the draft Jimmy Smith/Creed Taylor piece that I started last year and need to get it finished in time for his 12/8 birthday this year. I’ll email you a link to the draft.