Creed Taylor, one of the most influential and prolific jazz producers of the second half of the last century and best known for his distinctive work on the CTI label in the 1970s, died Monday in Nuremberg, Germany. rice field. he was 93 years old.
His daughter-in-law, Donna Taylor, said he was visiting family when he had a stroke on Aug. 2. He never recovered, she said.
Taylor began his career as a jazz producer in the 1950s and founded Impulse! in 1960. The label home to John Coltrane and other stars. However, he didn’t stay there long, and most of the label’s best-known records were later produced.
He moved to another jazz label, Verve. He left a lasting mark by producing recordings for saxophonist Stan Getz, who popularized bossa nova. This includes his famous 1964 album “Getz/Gilberto” by Getz and guitarist João Gilberto. wife, Astrud. Both the album and single, which became crossover hits, won Grammy Awards.
In 1967, Mr. Taylor was at A&M and founded another label, Creed Taylor Inc., better known as CTI. Three years later it became an independent label, and over the next decade it became known for stylish albums by George Benson, Stanley His Turrentine, Glover His Washington Jr. and other commercial successes unusual for jazz. .
“In many ways, the sound of the 1970s was defined by CTI,” says musician and producer Leo Sidran in the introduction. Podcast of 2015 Featuring an interview with Taylor.
The records Mr. Taylor released on the label often emphasized rhythm and prioritized accessibility over esoteric exploration. As J.D. Considine wrote in his 2002 New York Times re-release of some of these recordings, Mr. Taylor said, “Jazz started out as popular music, so it wanted to connect with a wider audience.” I believed we had to keep it.”
Some purists might have frowned at the time, but the effect was undeniable.
Music historian Ashley Kahn wrote in an e-mail: “The true measure of his influence was that at the height of the 1970s, when so many musical styles were gaining prominence, more people than ever knew jazz. “For most people, CTI wasn’t thought of as a jazz label. It was a sound, a musical identity like Motown. When I bought the CTI album, With at least two or three tracks, we knew it would be the best quality on every level.
Impulse!, who are still influential in the jazz world, paid tribute to Taylor on Twitter.
“He was a genius when it came to finding new and special music that would stay in the listener’s mind forever,” the company said in a post.
Creed Vane Taylor V was born on May 13, 1929 in Lynchburg, Virginia. His father, Donna, was a “gentleman’s farmer” as Taylor described him, and his mother, Nina (Harrison) Taylor, was a personnel manager.
Mr. Taylor grew up in Bedford, Virginia, in an idyllic neighborhood called Whitegate, west of Roanoke, where his family owned the land for generations. He played the trumpet in high school, inspired by Harry James. He said he was surrounded by bluegrass and country music. 2008 interview I used JazzWax, but I liked jazz much more.
“It was cool music,” he said. “It made me feel hip, not corny.”
He attended Duke University and studied psychology until the Korean War interrupted his schooling. After completing his Marine Corps service, he earned his degree in psychology in 1954, but soon left for New York to pursue his true interest, music. He told Sidran’s podcast that a visit to the city a week ago had whet his appetite.
“52nd Street was on fire,” he said. “I was able to walk into a small club at the foot of brownstones throughout that section and hear Basie, Ellington, Getz and more for free. .”
He was in a way inspired to start producing “Jazz at the Philharmonic Orchestra”. It was a long-running series of concerts and recordings organized by Norman Granz, who would later find success with Verve. he didn’t like it. .
“Long bass solo, tenor solo, whatever,” he said on the podcast. “Drum solos, crowds and all the excitement—what happens to the music in all this? ‘Jazz at the Philharmonic’ was the circus for me.”
In 1954 he got a job at Bethlehem Records, producing albums for vocalist Chris Connor and others. It was a time when producers did everything for a record, from arranging musicians to trying to play it on radio stations.
“I was fascinated by the record business,” he told JazzWax.
And sometimes that meant discovering artists. He told JazzWax that he moved into an apartment in Greenwich Village in late 1954 and was intrigued by a flutist sitting and practicing in his backyard garden.
“He played scales and then started doing some great jazz lines,” recalls Taylor. “I decided I had to find out who the devil was playing.”
He followed the sound and knocked on the musician’s door. It was Herbie Mann, still largely unknown at the time. Mr. Mann recorded some of his first albums for Bethlehem.
In 1956, Mr. Taylor moved to ABC Paramount, where he produced all kinds of albums (one was a collection of speeches and other highlights from Dwight D. Eisenhower’s career). Singer Bobby Scott and countless others before forming Impulse! as a sublabel.
There and on subsequent stops, he encouraged artists to try new things and not shy away from other genres. For example, one of his George Benson albums is “The Other Side of Abbey Road” (1970), Mr. Benson’s guitar interpretation of a song from the Beatles album.
In the early 1970s, CTI brought together artists in star-studded stage shows. “Real jazz his festival has finally come to Atlanta,” he wrote at Atlanta Voice in 1973 when his CTI tour played the city.
Whatever the project, Mr. Taylor’s stamp was distinctive.
“Through lines to the labels Creed worked for or started, including Impulse, Verve, and CTI, were a writer’s 360-degree approach to creating a quality vinyl product,” said the music historian. Mr. Khan of said. It employs A-list jazz players and is open to familiar pop melodies such as bossa nova, soul, R&B tunes and even The Beatles. We used an arranger like this to place museum-quality photos on the album cover.
“He thought and acted like one record company and then became one. CTI. There is none.”
Mr. Taylor first married Marian Wendes in 1956 but divorced in 1984. He married Harriet Schmidt in 1988. She survived him along with three sons from his first marriage, Creed Vane Taylor VI, Blakelock Harrison Taylor and John Wendeth Taylor. Daughter of second marriage, Courtney Taylor-Prince. and five grandchildren.
Despite its early success, the CTI label ran into financial difficulties and filed for bankruptcy in 1978.
He was also embroiled in a lengthy legal battle with Warner Bros. over the rights to Benson’s music. After a jury ruled in Taylor’s favor in 1988, awarding him more than $3 million, he was able to temporarily revive the label. By then, his CTI records from the 1970s had begun to be reissued by his CBS Records catalog acquisition. Rappers sampled his records, and with vinyl’s resurgence in recent years, collectors appreciated them.
In 2012, Taylor spoke to a jazz studies class at Central North Carolina University, including how to get guitarist Wes Montgomery to try new things and how he spoke through recording Nina Simone’s album Baltimore. I explained the story in detail. He encouraged the would-be producers in his class to stay curious.
“You have to keep your eyes and ears open at all times,” he said.