CTI Records

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CTI Records ( Creed Taylor Inc. ) was a record label specializing in jazz .

CTI was originally founded in 1967 as a sub-label of A&M Records . For this purpose Creed Taylor (formerly producer for Verve and founder of the jazz label Impulse! Records ) was hired. Creed Taylor worked with the sound engineer Rudy Van Gelder , who had already recorded the albums for Blue Note Records in his own recording studio .

From the beginning of the 1970s, CTI had some successes. The 6000 series in particular was quite successful commercially. The debut LP from Eumir Deodato ( Prelude ) from 1972 made it to the UK and the US charts and achieved million sales. Taylor's idea of ​​a separate USA-wide distribution system for CTI Records failed, however, and led to the end of independent production on the usual scale. Many of the very successful CTI (house) musicians also went to other labels. Nonetheless, Taylor continued to run CTI Records and recordings were released into the 1990s.

Characteristic of the CTI records was, among other things, a top-class and above-average attractive graphic design of the cover with innovative images, mostly by the American photographer Pete Turner . This was the result of Creed Taylor's commercial flair for glamorous product presentation, as with Verve and Impulse! practiced by him. Today the rights to the publications belong to Columbia Records . CTI's concept was contemporary jazz produced in a modern way with soul and funk elements, recorded by renowned jazz musicians such as Freddie Hubbard , George Benson , Milt Jackson , Paul Desmond , Ron Carter , Hubert Laws , Gabor Szabo , Bill Evans , Esther Phillips and others. Often the accusation was raised that CTI recordings, with their perfect and, by some, perceived as smooth, production, were becoming popular with the masses. George Benson, Freddie Hubbard and Stanley Turrentine in particular released not only some of their most successful albums on CTI, but also to this day the most critically acclaimed albums.

Some CTI publications

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