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Creed Taylor

Creed Taylor revolutionized the respectability and popularity of jazz with CTI Records. In fact, some of the most significant jazz of the last half of the 20th century has been fashioned under Taylor's guidance and supervision.

Taylor has been especially influential in the packaging of music. His records are as much art to see as they are to hear. With heavy, glossy, gatefold covers featuring stark design and striking photography, his records have the sound and feel of something bearing unusual class and great quality.

After earning a degree in psychology in the early 1950s, Taylor played trumpet in clubs around Virginia Beach. He relocated to New York and secured a venerable post as head of artists and repertoire at Bethlehem Records. He produced a wide variety of jazz for Bethlehem before he took a higher profile position with ABC Paramount during the late fifties. At ABC, he produced some jazz and a great many more vocal recordings that enjoyed popular success. ABC also issued several records at the time under Taylor's name (Ping Pang Pong and Lonelyville) with music and orchestral guidance by the great film and TV composer Kenyon Hopkins, one of Taylor's first "house" arrangers.

When ABC Records sought to form a jazz subsidiary in 1960, Taylor was recruited to oversee it all. He called the company "Impulse!" (connoting the spontaneous feeling of jazz), conceived its distinctive black and orange label and spine design, brought in photographer Pete Turner for elegant, vivid cover art and initiated heavy cardboard, gatefold sleeves (to convey substance). Taylor, however, stayed with Impulse for only a few months. But during this short time, he recorded historically significant music by John Coltrane, Gil Evans, Cecil Taylor (under Gil Evans' name), Oliver Nelson and Ray Charles.

Taylor jumped ship to accept a lucrative offer to run Verve Records, the jazz label Norman Granz sold to MGM in 1961. Here was a company that had solid name recognition in the jazz community as well as a rich parent company to fund many of Taylor's lavish goals. Taylor almost immediately began attracting the biggest names in jazz to Verve. Bill Evans, Lee Konitz, Stan Getz and Jimmy Smith were signed right away. Not too long after, Taylor attracted other jazz greats like Gil Evans, Wes Montgomery and Antonio Carlos Jobim, helping them achieve some of the greatest recorded work of their careers.

Verve's big budgets and Creed Taylor's proven ability to turn jazz into hits (starting in 1962 with Jimmy Smith's "Walk On The Wild Side" and Stan Getz's "The Girl From Ipanema") afforded limitless opportunities to employ the cream of the crop in studio musicians for these records. Taylor was also able to record his jazz stars in a wide variety of beautifully devised orchestral settings arranged by such first-call arrangers as Oliver Nelson, Lalo Schifrin, Gary McFarland, Don Sebesky and Claus Ogerman.

In November 1967, Taylor arranged with A&M's Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss to begin his own organization, CTI Records. The team he took with him were among the finest in the business: engineer Rudy Van Gelder, designer Sam Antupit and, again, photographer Pete Turner. He also developed a small in-house staff of musicians comprised of jazz's greatest names, including Herbie Hancock and Ron Carter, to provide premium showcases for his solo stars, the likes of which included Wes Montgomery, George Benson and Antonio Carlos Jobim. Additionally, Taylor continued exploring his bossa nova successes with new recordings by such Brazilian musicians as Tamba 4, Walter Wanderley and Milton Nascimento.

In 1970, Creed Taylor launched CTI as an independent entity. The shift was seen in the switch from the cover's white backgrounds to black. George Benson made the transition too, staying throughout CTI's greatest years in the 1970s. Some of the music's greatest players, including Freddie Hubbard and Stanley Turrentine, were recruited to CTI and ultimately created some of their most remarkable recordings while under Creed Taylor's aegis.

CTI has since withstood many incarnations and traversed many ups and downs. Taylor successfully revived the label during the first half of the 1990s, recording Dizzy Gillespie, Larry Coryell, Jim Hall and, perhaps most significantly, bassist Charles Fambrough and, most memorably, Ted Rosenthal.

But current financial troubles prevent the release of new CTI material and the distribution of the handful of titles produced during the first half the 1990s. Freddie Hubbard, fraught in recent years with his own health problems, has made a return to the label. But plans to record at this point are indefinite. During 2000, Universal - which owns the A&M/CTI tapes Creed Taylor produced during 1967-70 - issued CTI titles by Paul Desmond, Quincy Jones, Tamba 4 and Antonio Carlos Jobim. Sony - which owns the rights to the 1970-80 CTI catalog in the United States and Europe - had done a marginal (at best) job issuing and reissuing a number of CTI titles in 2002: 15 titles in the United States and the United Kingdom, with an additional five reissues in the United Kingdom, of which three were finally issued - with less than perfect sound - outside of Japan and one, Idris Muhammad's powerfully persuasive Power Of Soul, was issued for the first time on CD.

In spite of coming from an era that was predominant in Disco glitz, amplified instruments, Jazz Fusion and a wide-open studio jam tradition, the vast majority of these eight recordings hold up marvelously. It wipes away some of the embarrassing aspects of the 1970s and sounds remarkably untarnished for pop Jazz that's over thirty years old.

Source: Doug Payne

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by Arnaldo DeSouteiro
July 17, 2025

One of the first artists signed by Creed Taylor for CTI's subsidiary Kudu label, Hank Crawford suffered violent criticism during the period (1971-1978) he recorded for the label, being accused of making mellow and commercial albums. On the other hand, Hank achieved a new level of popularity during his CTI/Kudu years. Some of the eight albums he cut for the label sold over 100,000 copies with almost no promotion. And his Kudu debut, Help Me Make It Through The Night, ...

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Born John Robert Smith on December 16, 1933 (in Louisville, KY), formerly known as Johnny Hammond Smith, and later as Johnnny Hammond, one of the all-time best jazz organists passed away on June 4, 1997, in Chicago, Illinois. For some of his early fans, some of the best albums he recorded were done for Prestige in the Sixties. A younger generation, who grew up listening to the hip-hop influenced jazz sounds of the 1990s, prefers Johnny's over-produced sessions for Milestone ...

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Eric Gale: Forecast

by Arnaldo DeSouteiro
October 13, 2024

Eric Gale (born on September 20, 1938, of Barbadian parents, in Brooklyn, NY) recorded over 500 albums as sideman, backing such stars as Aretha Franklin, King Curtis, Dianna Ross, Paul Simon, Lena Horne, Michel Legrand, Quincy Jones, Roberta Flack, Gladys Knight & The Pips, Joe Cocker, Carly Simon, Van Morrison, Milton Nascimento, Billy Joel, Gato Barbieri and Mongo Santamaria, to name a few. Gale's association with Creed Taylor began when the celebrated producer was working at Verve Records. ...

Liner Notes

CTI Acid Jazz Grooves by Various Artists

by Arnaldo DeSouteiro
June 19, 2024

The CD you are holding in your hands is a very special compilation. It's the celebration of CTI as one of the most “sampled" labels on Earth! For the past ten years, many CTI tracks have been cut up, sampled, scratched and looped to create new songs for a new audience. Many of the selections on this album (all of them produced by Creed Taylor and engineered by Rudy Van Gelder) represented the basic inspiration and major influence in the ...

Radio & Podcasts

Revisiting a classic conversation with Creed Taylor from 2015

by Leo Sidran
August 25, 2022

Creed Taylor was an inspiration to generations of music lovers. He was behind some of the greatest records ever made. He passed away earlier this week at the age of 93.For forty years, Creed Taylor was one of a small handful of jazz record producers and label managers who shaped and defined the sound of jazz recording. Through his work with the Bethlehem, ABC, Impulse!, Verve, and CTI labels, he produced classic albums for countless artists. ...

463

Interview

Creed Taylor, Incorporated: The AAJ Interview, Part 3-3: 2004 State of the Union

by Chris M. Slawecki
July 7, 2004

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Introduction Without the contributions of producer and entrepreneur Creed Taylor, the past, present and future of jazz would be differently written. Five decades ago, Creed Taylor produced some of Bethlehem Records' best albums, including sets by Charles Mingus, Kai Winding with J.J. Johnson, and singer Chris Connor. He became known for his meticulous preparation and musicians' ear (Taylor also plays trumpet), and in 1960 formed the Impulse! ...

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Interview

Creed Taylor, Incorporated: The AAJ Interview, Part 2-3

by Chris M. Slawecki
July 6, 2004

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3Introduction Without the contributions of producer and entrepreneur Creed Taylor, the past, present and future of jazz would be differently written.Five decades ago, Creed Taylor produced some of Bethlehem Records' best albums, including sets by Charles Mingus, Kai Winding with J.J. Johnson, and singer Chris Connor. He became known for his meticulous preparation and musicians' ear (Taylor also plays trumpet), and in 1960 formed the Impulse! jazz subsidiary of ...

Obituary

Creed Taylor (1929-2022)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
August 25, 2022

Creed Taylor, a highly influential and maverick jazz record producer and entrepreneur who recorded virtually every major jazz artist while in charge of the music at six major record labels over the course of his career, died August 22 in Winkelhaid, Germany, following a stroke suffered weeks earlier. He was 93. His son, John, announced Creed's passing in an email to me. Creed began his career at Bethlehem Records in New York in 1954, where he helped pioneer the 10-inch ...
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Music Industry

Creed Taylor: Shades of Green

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
May 13, 2021

Today is Creed Taylor's birthday. He's 92. The fabled producer had a significant influence over the direction of jazz from the mid-1950s on. His first job was at Bethlehem Records in New York in the summer of 1954, attracting talent and overseeing the recording of jazz singers and instrumentalists on the East Coast. Creed's vision was to get Bethlehem to start releasing 12-inch records, which he felt was the future of the LP. A year later he moved to ABC-Paramount, ...
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Interview

Creed Taylor on Phil Ramone

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
April 4, 2013

Producer Creed Taylor deserves enormous credit for the American bossa nova movement of the early 1960s. Instead of recording jazz artists interpreting the new Rio de Janeiro sound—as many jazz producers at the time were doing—Creed [pictured above] carefully blended the two. By recognizing the jazziness and seductive qualities of Antonio Carlos Jobim's melodies, Creed was able to insist that the two styles feed off each other—giving each equal expressive footing. During Creed's years at Verve—between 1961 and 1966—this new ...
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Music Industry

Creed Taylor: Time is on My Side

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
December 27, 2011

You know Time Is On My Side as a 1964 Rolling Stones hit. But a year before Mick growled the lyrics into a studio mike, jazz trombonist Kai Winding [pictured] recorded the song first for producer Creed Taylor at Verve as a single. It never appeared on an LP. The song was written by Jerry Ragovoy, under thepseudonym Norman Meade. Produced by Creed Taylor [pictured] and engineered by Phil Ramone, the Winding record featured background vocals by Cissy Houston, Dionne Warwick ...
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158

Recording

First Impulse: The Creed Taylor Collection 50th Anniversary

Source: Sound Insights by Doug Payne
May 20, 2011

It was 50 years ago this year that ABC Records, having recent success with such pop acts as Paul Anka, Buddy Holly and others, decided to create a specialty label specifically designed for jazz music. One of the company's most successful producers, Creed Taylor, who had already brought the company a significant modicum of success creating some fairly profitable novelty records and jazz discs—notably Lambert, Hendricks and Ross's Sing A Song Of Basie, Quincy Jones's This Is How I Feel ...
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Interview

Creed Taylor: Impulse Years

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
April 16, 2011

The founding of Impulse Records in 1960 by Creed Taylor is a fascinating story. My interview with Creed in today's Wall Street Journal here looks at how he came up with the Impulse name while working as the jazz producer at ABC-Paramount. He also talks about the branding strategy behind Impulse's signature orange and black color scheme, the laminated covers and the gatefolds—covers that swung open to reveal liner notes and photos. Creed has always been first and foremost a ...
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267

Recording

Creed Taylor's Landmark CTI Label Offers Up a Treasure Trove of New Jazz Reissues

Source: All About Jazz @ Spinner
October 3, 2010

The concept of music packaging is mostly a thing of the past, as downloads become the medium of choice. Nonetheless, the stunning artwork of many classic albums helped define those records. Blue Note Records is probably the one company that is more identified with its cover art than any other label out there, jazz or otherwise. Those iconic Reid Miles designs and images were just as powerful as the amazing music of the label's classic era, helping to lead the ...
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166

Interview

Interview: Creed Taylor (Part 19)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
May 15, 2009

Creed Taylor has never before granted an interview about the events leading up to the bankruptcy of CTI Records in 1978. Until now, that is. In an exclusive conversation with JazzWax, the maverick producer looks back at one of the most painful periods of his career, reflecting on the shifting record-industry business practices during that decade and how the jazz label he started attempted to survive. [Photo of Creed Taylor in the early 1980s by Chuck Stewart]

First, it should ...
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178

Interview

Interview: Creed Taylor (Part 20)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
May 9, 2009

First, it should ...
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209

Interview

Interview: Creed Taylor (Part 18)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
May 1, 2009

Throughout his six-decade career as a record producer, Creed Taylor has operated with bold strokes, subtleties and contrasts. The secret of his success has been to stick with jazz artists he likes best and create novel studio environments in which these artists can thrive and break new ground. [Photo of Creed Taylor and George Benson by Chuck Stewart]

Few producers have garnered the level of respect from jazz musicians that Creed has over the years. Virtually all of the artists ...
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