The A&M Years
Taylor began working at A&M Records in 1967 and formed
his own label, CTI (Creed Taylor Inc.), the following year. A&M distributed
CTI releases until 1969, when Taylor left A&M to establish CTI as an
independent record company. Wes Montgomery joined Taylor at A&M, where he
recorded his final three albums.
The CTI Years
Taylor soon established CTI among the most popular and
successful jazz record companies of the 1970s, achieving fame for his
unrivalled ability to balance the artistic with the commercial. Musicians
including Freddie Hubbard, Stanley Turrentine, George Benson, Chet Baker, Gerry
Mulligan, Nina Simone, Paul Desmond, Art Farmer, Herbie Hancock, and Ron Carter
are just a few of the many successful jazz artists who recorded on CTI during
the 1970s. Taylor also formed other labels within CTI, including the Kudu
label, which focused on soul-jazz recordings by Hank Crawford, Grover
Washington, Jr., Esther Phillips and others.
Bert Gambini, a radio programmer in Buffalo, summarizes, “In
evaluating CTI, I'm going to borrow the wisdom of Witold Rybczynski, the
architectural historian. He felt there was no such thing as a timeless
building. Certain structures were admired because they are specifically of
their time. I think this too is the case with CTI jazz. This music screams of
its era and that's the reason why it's so enjoyable. It's that temporal stamp
that I interpret as an asset, not as a liability. Instead of Creed Taylor,
think Glenn Miller for a moment. If you want to aurally represent an era like
the early 1940s Swing era, is there any better representation than 'In the
Mood' or 'String of Pearls'? The same thing applies to Creed Taylor's CTI's
brand of Jazz from 1970 to 1980".
In 1974, Taylor faced financial problems caused by setting
up his own network to distribute CTI labels and made a new distribution deal
with Motown. This, however, ended in litigation in 1977 with Taylor having to
lose Grover Washington and the artist's Kudu recordings as part of the
settlement to quit Motown. He also lost the rights to Bob James's solo
recordings for CTI in separate litigation. CTI went into Chapter XI bankruptcy
in late 1978 before Taylor reached a distribution deal with Columbia Records
the following year, in return for the rights to the remaining master
recordings.
Columbia oversaw various reissue programs of CTI’s catalog
material, including on CD for the first time. Taylor attempted to buy back the
rights to the tapes in 1989, but the recordings remain with Columbia/Sony BMG
with sporadic re-releases. Taylor returned to record production in 1990 with a
few new album releases on CTI through Polygram but without the success of the
1970s.
Don Sebesky initially created many of the arrangements for
CTI and its various sister and subsidiary labels. He was later joined by Bob
James, and then by David Matthews in the mid 1970s. Sessions featured some of
jazz's finest musicians including bassist Ron Carter, guitarist Eric Gale,
keyboardist Herbie Hancock, pianist Bob James, and organist Richard Tee. Taylor
mostly used Van Gelder Studios located in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, with
Rudy Van Gelder engineering nearly all sessions until the later years of the
label.
CTI's output was generally both commercially and
artistically successful with the label becoming a leading force in jazz during
its existence. CTI's best-selling release was Deodato's album, Prelude, which
reached #3 on the US Billboard Top 40 albums chart in 1973, an unusual
achievement for a record on a jazz-based label. A single from the album,
"Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001)", peaked at #2 on the US Billboard
Hot 100 and #7 in the United Kingdom.
Other successful album releases included Grover Washington,
Jr.'s Mister Magic and Feels So Good (both reaching #10 in 1975), Esther
Phillips' What A Diff'rence A Day Makes (reaching #32 in 1975), and Bob James'
BJ4 (reaching #38 in 1977).
Taylor had previously founded Impulse Records and worked for
Verve Records where he earned the reputation as an industry-respected producer
of jazz albums. His productions for CTI shared a characteristically warm
ambiance and helped to establish smooth jazz as a commercially viable musical
genre. CTI also became well known for its striking album sleeve designs, some
of them featuring vivid photographic images by artist, Pete Turner.
In 1978, CTI Records declared bankruptcy; however, most of
its catalog has remained in print. CTI's post-A&M Records output is now
owned by Sony Music Entertainment and distributed by Masterworks Jazz, while
Grover Washington, Jr.'s Kudu albums have been reissued on Motown and its
MoJazz imprint. In addition, Bob James' four CTI albums are now controlled by
James himself, while Seawind also own their back catalog of CTI releases.
CTI's early A&M-subsidiary releases are now
distributed by Verve Records, a division of Universal Music Group where Creed
Taylor ironically helped to make his name.
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