Creed Taylor International

September 24, 2009 4:17 PM

The CTI never sleeps. A collection of LPs from Creed Taylor's CTI and Kudu labels, as compiled by Doug Payne.
posted by The Card Cheat (11 comments total)

Overwhelmingly cool.
posted by nosila at 4:37 PM on September 24, 2009

Love that Esther Phillips stuff, among lots of the other records.
posted by box at 4:46 PM on September 24, 2009

Very cool. Hubert Laws Rite of Spring is a forgotten favorite of mine. Thanks for the post.
posted by hortense at 4:57 PM on September 24, 2009

Nice. some stuff here is really solid. Other stuff is unbelievably cheesy fun. But unfortunately the internet doesn't do a good job of replicating the gorgeous ultra-glossy gatefold covers.
posted by hydrophonic at 7:01 PM on September 24, 2009

Everyone should own Esther Phillips version of Home is Where the Hatred is – the best 'drug song' ever recorded.
posted by niceness at 7:55 PM on September 24, 2009

> But unfortunately the internet doesn't do a good job of replicating the gorgeous ultra-glossy gatefold covers.

It's true. Here's one I bought just because the cover was so amazing.
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:14 PM on September 24, 2009

Wow, great to see the Esther Phillips love! I picked up those mid-70s Kudu LPs a few months ago at a used record store and was stunned at how interesting they are. I've played songs from them twice DJing at a local club, and both times another DJ came up to ask who that woman was.
posted by mediareport at 8:50 PM on September 24, 2009

What was really cool is you could order a suitable-for-framing poster of any CTI album cover.
posted by bonefish at 11:16 PM on September 24, 2009

Uggh! Creed Taylor ruined American Jazz in the '70's. You know that easy listing and smooth-jazz shit that you hear at the mall or on WGAY? -- Creed Taylor. That shitty saxophone with the vaguely funky synth behind it? Creed Taylor. Just forget it and let it die.

If you want to know what American jazz fusion could have been, just listen to Fela Kuti...
posted by vhsiv at 5:37 PM on September 25, 2009

That should be Fela Kuti. The YouTube graphic broke my spelling.

Plenty more Fela here.
posted by vhsiv at 5:46 PM on September 25, 2009

Creed Taylor ruined jazz, my ear. He's a goddamn legendary jazz figure.

He released lots of great artists for years and years, and didn't stop anybody from playing the kind of jazz they wanted to play and making the kinds of albums they wanted to make--whether it was Cecil Taylor or Ray Charles or Charles Mingus or Archie Shepp or John Coltrane or, yeah, you see what I mean--plenty of great jazz musicians made great records for Taylor.

I don't think he directed Grover Washington's or George Winston's creative process any more than he did any of those other dudes.
posted by box at 7:55 PM on September 26, 2009