On a recent trip to the west coast to visit family, I stopped at a record store in the small town of Anderson, California. Anderson is about ten miles south of Redding, and about two hours north of Sacramento, just off Interstate 5. While it doesn't look like much from the outside, Meteor Music is a terrific store with a nice selection of music in just about every genre, as well as posters, magazines and other music memorabilia. I ended up buying about 15 albums, all in very good shape and all fairly priced. The owners are good guys and really know their stuff. It's hard to imagine why you would, but if you ever find yourself in Northern California near Anderson, you should stop by.One of the titles I bought at Meteor was a copy of Hubert Laws' 1970 release, Afro-Classic, on the CTI label. Great album. About two weeks later, back home from our trip, I stumbled on a copy of Laws' 1974 album, In The Beginning, also on the CTI label. Just a coincidence? Probably, but finding these two albums got me looking through my collection for other albums on the Creed Taylor Incorporated record label. In case you aren't familiar with CTI, their releases are very distinctive, featuring laminated gatefold jackets with striking photographs by artist Pete Turner.
Equally striking is the all-star team of people that worked at CTI, beginning with the founder, Creed Taylor.
Taylor was born in Virginia in 1929. He played trumpet in his high school band and went to Duke University where he played in various jazz ensembles. After college and a stint in the Marines (including 10 months in Korea), he moved to New York and convinced a fellow Duke alum to hire him at Bethlehem Records. With no real experience, Taylor produced an album for singer Chris Connor that became a hit. And as Wikipedia tells us: "Due in part to the album's success, Taylor went on to become head of artists and repertory (A&R) for Bethlehem Records during its two most significant years, recording such artists as Oscar Pettiford, Ruby Braff (Ruby Braff???), Carmen McRae, Charles Mingus, Herbie Mann, Charlie Shavers, and the J.J. Johnson-Kai Winding Quintet. In 1956, Taylor left Bethlehem for ABC-Paramount Records, where four years later he founded the subsidiary label Impulse!"
Taylor's great coup at Impulse! was signing John Coltrane to a recording contract. Coltrane went on to record some 20 albums for Impulse!, which all by itself was enough to make the label a huge force in jazz music. It was also the reason that Impulse! became know as "the house that Trane built." But that's a whole 'nother post.
Despite his success at Impulse!, Taylor was lured away in 1961 when MGM asked him to become the new head of Verve Records. (Verve founder Norman Granz sold the label to MGM in 1960.) At Verve, Taylor is credited with being the man who introduced bossa nova to the United States. Taylor produced the seminal sessions for Getz/Gilberto, which included the number one hit "The Girl From Ipanema." He followed that up with a string of bossa nova albums by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Stan Getz, in addition to producing jazz sessions by Jimmy Smith, Wes Montgomery, and Bill Evans.
Meanwhile, out in Los Angeles, Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss were selling Tijuana Brass albums by the truck load on their A&M label. They wanted to extend their empire into jazz, and decided to start a jazz subsidiary. And who better to run the show than Creed Taylor? No one, apparently. With the lure of having his own imprint (and a five-year, $1 million contract), Taylor agreed to leave Verve and head up the new A&M/CTI jazz label.
The first album that Taylor produced for the label was A Day In The Life by Wes Montgomery. If you can get past the disgusting photo of cigarette butts, you will see the first appearance of the CTI logo at bottom right (which bears some resemblance to the style of the impulse! logo). This first release also put in place the production and musical teams that Taylor would use for the bulk of his recordings for both A&M and later at his independent CTI label. And what a team! Rudy Van Gelder as the recording/mastering engineer, Don Sebesky writing arrangements and conducting, and a house band that included such heavy hitters as Ron Carter on bass, Grady Tate on Drums, and Herbie Hancock on piano.
Over the next three years, Taylor produced and released 27 albums for A&M. Besides Wes Montgomery, other artists who appeared on the A&M/CTI imprint were Herbie Mann, Nat Adderley, George Benson, Paul Desmond, Quincy Jones, and Kai Winding and J.J. Johnson. All the albums were released on the familiar tan A&M label with the "trumpet" logo. Creed Taylor's CTI logo and his signature are on the right side. Despite Taylor's impeccable jazz pedigree and the unquestionable chops of musicians like Carter and Hancock, critical reaction to the A&M/CTI series was mixed. They were not considered "serious" bop albums. With Sebesky's lush orchestrations, the songs often sounded like elevator versions of the originals. Of course, as Herb Alpert had already shown with the Tijuana Brass, people really like pop-sounding jazz, so many of the albums were quite successful commercially.
In 1970, Taylor bought out A&M and took CTI independent. However, many of the artists and the musical approach that Taylor had used at A&M continued pretty much unchanged. The first five CTI titles were released on a green label, which was quickly switched out for a redesigned orange label with burgundy stripes that was used for most of the 70s. Notice also that the logo has subtly changed from the earlier A&M version.
After checking my collection, it turns out that I have 13 CTI releases, as well as four A&M/CTI releases. Overall, I have 48 albums that were produced by Creed Taylor, mostly on the Verve label. (No, I didn't go through all 4,500 albums to check. I use a computer cataloging program that allows me to search such things in my collection.)
Coltrane notwithstanding, Taylor's approach to jazz, especially in the 70s, often produced something more akin to a jazz/pop fusion or jazz light. In an extended interview with Downbeat magazine's Ted Panken in 2005, Taylor says he was weaned on big band music, and was turned off by the extended improvised solos in classic bop. He says that compared to other jazz producers, he was more focused on how to sell albums and get radio play. Although his first consideration, he says, was to be sure that his recording sessions found "a groove." Though his critics blame him for setting jazz on the road to ruin, i.e. "smooth jazz," Taylor says he never intended to create "background music for beautiful people."
Taylor stopped producing albums in the mid 90s. Although I couldn't find a complete discography of his work, a search on Discogs comes up with 1,074 hits for "producer credit" for Creed Taylor. That includes singles and lots of reissued and duplicated titles, but it's still an amazing body of work. As of this writing, Taylor, who will be 88 years old in May, is still alive.
Regardless of where you stand on smooth jazz, the sessions that Taylor produced are generally well recorded and feature some of the greatest names in jazz history. While I don't find my CTI releases to be across-the-board great sounding, Van Gelder never made a really bad recording. Plus, it's always a thrill to see Van Gelder stamped in the deadwax. Since I often find CTI releases and even Verve titles for less than $10, it's usually worth the risk to check them out. However, as always with used albums, the condition is key. Older mono pressings often play nicely and sound great, even when they look scratched up. Scratched stereo releases are never going to sound good.
Enjoy the music!
