Creed Taylor Produced

The January 1965 issue of Jazz magazine, Vol. 4, No. 1, including November/December 1964 (Published monthly by Jazz Press, Inc., New York, N.Y.) featured what was billed as “the first in a series of profiles on the jazz record producers – the men who are known as artists and repertoire executives or more frequently as A&R men.”

It goes on to say, “The A&R man sits ‘smack dab in the middle,’ wearing two hats – he must come up with creative jazz tracks to attract a highly critical and limited market, while at the same time managing to show a profit on a considerable financial investment.”

Taylor, probably more so than any other jazz producer, was more successful commercially than any other jazz producer. As discussed here a number of times, this came both at a personal and professional cost.

The article is interesting because it is an early insight into Taylor, where his memories and priorities would be different from just ten years later, much less later in his life. Hoefer makes two interesting points.

1. Zoot Sims 1957 ABC Paramount album Zoot Sims Plays Alto, Tenor, and Baritone,  ABC-155 ^[1]https://www.discogs.com/master/696295-Zoot-Sims-Plays-Alto-Tenor-And-Baritone – was in fact multi-taped or multi tracked. Composer and arranger George Handy ^[2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Handy had the idea for Sims to record double and triple tracks, playing alto, tenor, and baritone, Sims also adds vocals. The tracks were recorded on November 2nd and 19th of 1956. While not as complex Sing A Song Of Basie to overdub and re-record, given that stereo was barely a thing at that time ^[3]http://ctproduced.com/am-par-electro-voice-and-the-story-of-stereo/. The multi-tracked, overdubbed sessions for Lambert, Hendricks & Ross Sing A Song Of Basie, that accorded Taylor his first album Grammy nomination, as well as later Hall of Fame inductee wouldn’t happen for almost a year, in August, September, October and November of 1958.
2. Hoefer acknowledges that the Bossa Nova market had cratered by the time Taylor would get the musicians and crucially Astrud Gilberto together to record the legendary Getz/Gilberto and Girl From Ipanema – holding on to it for a year stopped the album from going down with the ship.

The column is reproduced here as accurately as possible while not using the original layout and typeface. Punctuation is as close as possible to the original but may have been changed to aid readability. Spelling has not been changed (see compleat!) For reference, the original column can be seen at the bottom of this post.

The original article included a picture of Creed Taylor in the studio with Jimmy Smith. I do not have access to that picture. The one used below is perhaps more significant in many ways. Taylor can be seen on the left at the back; on the right is Jimmy Smith, in the middle is a picture of the “Black Godfather” Clarence Avant. Avant had just become Smith’s personal manager.

The original article includes the Jazz logo seen below, along with the phrase “All Americans are born without prejudice – let’s live that way” – seems appropriate in January 2026, 61 years after the article appeared.

The Record Men

Creed Taylor

By George Hoefer ^[4]George Hoefer, historian, liner notes, author, editor of Down Beat (1958-1961). Hoefer died, 58, November 19th, 1967 – He had been a Down Beat writer since 1939, writing the Hot Box column. … Continue reading

Verve’s Creed Taylor, a ten-year veteran in a&r work, has been one of the most successful in the jazz a&r field. In satisfying jazz critics (using Down Beat’s record reviews as a measuring stick), Taylor has racked up an amazingly high number of 5-star, 4 1/2-star, and 4-star LPs during the past decade. He has also hit that never-never land for jazz albums known as the “Best Seller Charts” with one of the first bossa nova sets, the Stan Getz—Charlie Byrd Jazz Samba on the Verve label.

When working in an art form, as compared to a completely commercial venture, it is necessary to operate with creativity and sensitivity. Nothing will cause failure quicker than an endless repetition of similar recordings. It behooves the producer to take an individualistic approach to his supervisory function.

Taylor once told an interviewer, “I try to move with every individual situation, and no two recording situations are the same.” He has the musician’s viewpoint regarding the categorization of the art into comparative styles. To him music is music and not an amalgam of Dixieland, swing, bebop, progressive, or what have you. Yet, each musical production is a challenge to him, offering different possibilities and suggesting a number of varied approaches.

As a compleat record entrepreneur, Taylor starts with an original conception; selects his orchestrators and performers; familiarizes himself with pre-recording plans (scores, etc.); supervises the actual session or sessions; edits the tape; works with an artist on the packaging design and album cover (a facet of the business that was impressed upon him early in his career at Bethlehem Records when photographer-artist Burt Goldblatt enhanced the sales value of jazz albums with thoughtful award-winning covers); writes an infrequent liner note; and finally after the album has been released, he keeps a check on the midtown retail record shops to see how the set is moving. As for the last named activity, he laughingly said he unobtrusively moves his product to the front of the bin.

It is obvious that Taylor lives for music. It has been thus since the now 35-year-old a&r specialist first became aware of the world around him. He was born in Virginia, a section of the country where the big bands were unusually popular during the 1930s and 1940s; and an area that spawned Les Brown’s Blue Devils, Hal Kemp, Kay Kyser, Jelly Leftwich, Dean Hudson, and others.

Taylor played trumpet in his grade-school orchestra and by the time he had finished high school he was a regularly employed professional in local society bands.

He went on to Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, “not to get an education but to be on the scene where Les Brown had gotten his start,” as he put it. He played in the Duke symphony orchestra and eventually organized his own dance group using a book Brown had left behind.

Unfortunately, by this time around 1950, the big bands were rapidly disappearing, as was the interest in them. The young bandleader took to listening to Symphony Sid’s broadcasts of modern jazz from New York’s Birdland and during his summer vacation led a five-piece Bop City in Virginia Beach.

Although the musician may not have been looking for a formal education at Duke, he studied nevertheless for a degree in psychology in one of the best departments for that particular subject in the country-the Duke psychology division is the home of the experimentation in extra-sensory perception.

After serving two years in the Marine Corps, where they ignored his musical talent and put him to work teaching, Taylor returned to Duke for a semester to finish earning his degree and then headed for New York and a hoped-for career in music.

Competition in the big city soon discouraged him from an active playing life and he was soon looking for a job in psychological testing.

An unexpected opportunity came up suddenly in the record business before Taylor found his job in psychology. It was the summer of 1954 and Gus Wildi, owner of Bethlehem Records, had been trying unsuccessfully for a year to break into the record field with popular singles. He was ready to try anything new and decided to take a flyer at releasing LP albums for a specialized market.

Taylor signed on the new project and supervised the recording of an album by ex-Stan Kenton vocalist Chris Connor accompanied by the Ellis Larkins Trio. The LP, a collection of ballads including All About Ronnie, titled Lullabys of Birdland, was a hit and soon went into the 20,000 sold class.

It was a “first” for everyone concerned. Bethlehem was launched on a half-dozen years as one of the busiest jazz labels in the field. Miss Connor, on her first album, was started off on an active singing career that is still going strong. And Taylor was embarked on his decade as an a&r man.

For the next year such artists as trumpeter Ruby Braff (his first album under his own name), the late Oscar Pettiford, pianist-composer Bobby Scott, trombonists Urbie Green, Kai Winding-J.J. Johnson, flautist Herbie Mann, among others, were recorded by Taylor for Bethlehem. He handled the label’s East Coast jazz series that was inaugurated to compete with the then highly touted West Coast jazz output.

Late in 1955 the new ABC-Paramount company planned to put out a jazz line and hired Taylor to supervise the recordings. He began by setting up dates with jazz musicians, well known and unknown—many of the musicians he had recorded at Bethlehem were included—whom he felt had talent to offer.

In addition to his regular dates, he planned a jazz educational series to be known as “Know Your Jazz”. This idea was to present to the lay public a cross-sectional explanation of the contemporary jazz scene by issuing LPs concerned with specific instruments or a particular style of arrangement. Helping him on this project was writer Quincy Jones- Taylor was one of the first record men to recognize Jones’ considerable composer-arranger’s talent—and a “Know Your Jazz” album was released in November 1956, which contained a series of improvised solos representing the role of each instrument in jazz. The musicians used on the set were Donald Byrd (trumpet), Jimmy Cleveland (trombone), Al Cohn and Charlie Rouse (tenor saxophones), Gigi Gryce (alto saxophone), Tony Scott (clarinet), Billy Taylor, (piano), Mundell Lowe (guitar), Oscar Pettiford (bass), Kenny Clarke (drums), Joe Roland (vibes).

It was Taylor’s belief his “Know Your Jazz” approach was a more valid method of jazz education than the usual historical compilations. There was no intent on Taylor’s part to ignore the traditional aspects of jazz. He read in Time magazine the story pertaining to Chicago alto saxophonist Boyce Brown’s joining the Servite Fathers order. His knowledge of jazz history made him aware of the considerable importance of the comparatively obscure Brown on the Chicago scene from the 1920’s. He was curious to hear how the saxophonist would sound in 1956—Brown had always been considered avantgarde in the Windy City.

Alto man Brown, now known as Brother Matthew, was brought to New York to record with the old Chicago crowd made up of Eddie Condon, Pee Wee Russell, Wild Bill Davison, and others. Unfortunately, the Chicagoan was in poor health and was not up to his usual standard of playing. Taylor had taken a chance and his sincere effort to present a valid facet of jazz history was held up in some quarters as an attempt to cash in on the publicity value.

During the following years Taylor gave many then obscure jazz men a chance to record in their own field.

Men like pianist Dave McKenna (his solo album is today a collector’s item and many musicians and fans alike have asked this writer where a copy could be obtained), Lucky Thompson, multi-instrumentalist Don Elliott, Steve Lacy (soprano saxophone), Kenny Dorham, Billy Taylor ( piano), Jimmy Raney (guitar) , Whitey Mitchell (bass), Vinnie Burke (bass), Phil Sunkel (trumpet), Jackie Cain—Roy Kral, and many others.

ABC-Paramount’s jazz output included a good many 4-star sets as well as successful experimental departures from the general run of jazz records. There was the Zoot Sims Plays Alto, Tenor, and Baritone, a multi-taped set of tracks where Zoot performed on all the saxophones and managed to even squeeze in a vocal. Pie performed the four parts accompanied by Johnny Williams, piano; Knobby Totah, bass; and Gus Johnson, drums. Arranger George Handy (Boyd Raeburn) scored Sims’ improvised choruses resulting in a set of originals. It was an interesting variation on the famed Sidney Bechet One-Man-Band idea and received a 4-star rating.

One of Taylor’s own favorites during this period was the Quincy Jones arranged and composed This Is How I Eeel About Jazz. Taylor has said, “This was one of the first soul records by a big band.” The band was an all-star, 21-piece outfit with two bassists and two pianists. It rated 5-stars, as did another big band album released the same month by Am-Par, Oscar Pettiford in Hi Fi.

ABC’s a&r man came up a year later with another sensational record based on fresh original ideas. It was Sing A Song of Basie by the Dave Lambert Singers (it was the record that launched Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross). The project took 60 hours of studio time to complete. Three voices were multi-taped singing the section parts of ten well known Count Basie scores.

Late in 1958 Taylor came out with a record, Shock, under his own name. He took an orchestra into the studio with Kenyon Hopkins’ music, an expert sound man, and two girl vocalists. Although, it was hardly a jazz record, it was a brilliant sound effects effort, and was reviewed as “horror set to music.”

In the middle of 1960 Taylor started the ABC-Paramount subsidiary label—Impulse—in order to separate the quality jazz releases from Am-Par’s commercial output.

He has listed two of the half-dozen or so albums he produced for Impulse as significant of the caliber of jazz work he likes to present. One of these was the Ray Charles Genius plus Soul equals Jazz. Taylor feels Charles is the most important vocal stylist in jazz today.

Of the Gil Evans Out of the Cool album, he has said, “Evans is a totally individualistic arranger and composer; he feels like I do about the categorization of jazz.”

Taylor has recently released on Verve a new Evans LP entitled The Individualism of Gil Evans, a work that has engaged Taylor and Evans for over a year. It beautifully illustrates its title.

Late in 1960 Norman Granz sold his extensive Verve jazz catalogue to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc. The purchaser set the label up retaining its original name and identification. Taylor was hired to be in charge of the entire Verve jazz operation. He supervises the recording of all the Verve artists with the exception of Ella Fitzgerald (Granz, her personal manager, continues to supervise her recording) and Count Basie (who retains his own regular a&r man).

In addition to his active recording duties, Taylor supervises the release of material previously produced by Granz under a program called Jazz Essentials. ‘This includes tracks by the late Charlie Parker, the late Billie Holiday, Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie, Gene Krupa, Bud Powell, Ben Webster, Johnny Hodges, Roy Eldridge, and the late Lester Young, among others.

A Contemporary Music Series has brought forth such important works as the Stan Getz Focus album (5-stars) with Eddie Sauter’s arrangements. This was an unusual project in that Sauter wrote each theme as a nearly complete orchestration-composition for strings and rhythm. He left the task of finishing the design to the ingenuity of Getz’s improvisational abilities.

Shortly after the above session, Getz called Taylor from Washington, D.C., and asked if he might record some Brazilian music guitarist Charlie Byrd had brought back from a State Department tour of South America. Taylor flew to the capital and using Getz with Byrd and his group recorded Jazz Samba; one of the tracks was Desafinado by the brilliant pianist-composer Antonio Carlos Jobim. The result was a top-selling album, as well as a hit single.

It was one of the first bossa nova albums to get on the market. In mid1962 there were two follow-up albums with Getz in the bossa nova mood which also did well.

It is interesting to note here that in March 1963 Taylor again recorded Getz, this time with Joao Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim on the date. Six of the tunes were written by pianist Jobim. One of them, The Girl from Ipanema, sung by guitarist Gilberto’s wife Astrud, followed Desafinado to the hit class.

At the time of this recording the bossa nova had run its course. Taylor held back the LP, Getz/Gilberto, until the summer of 1964. It is likely that the album would have died if it had been released during the collapse of the bossa nova fad.

These examples of Taylor’s work point up the favorable results that can be obtained by considerable forethought as well as follow-up know how. One factor prevalent in Taylor’s production technique is that of his close touch with his artists – he knows what they can do, what they want to do, and is able to productively guide them.

A rather outstanding example of this approach is the manner in which Taylor handled the late trombonist-vocalist Jack Teagarden. Teagarden had always been interested in moody songs and loved to sing them. Most labels that recorded Mr. Tea in recent years wanted a Dixieland jazz album, replete with the same tired tunes like Basin Street, Royal Garden, and Beale Street. Taylor did two LPs with Teagarden singing and playing the songs he himself wanted to record. One album contained all Willard Robison compositions. Now that Jack is gone, the Verve catalogue has a valuable Teagarden legacy in its files.

Taylor doesn’t seem to miss a trick. When the National Broadcasting Corporation put on the TV production Chicago and All That Jazz in 1962, Taylor grabbed the all-star cast assembled in New York (Lil Armstrong, Teagarden, Bud Freeman, Jimmy McPartland, Pee Wee Russell, Joe Sullivan, and others) and rushed them to the recording studio between rehearsals winding up with a 4-star album ^[5]http://ctproduced.com/jack-teagarden-and-the-verve-records-era-of-creed-taylor/.

Sometimes Taylor takes chances, but it wouldn’t be jazz, without the spontaneity of individual creativeness.

Updates:
Jan 5th, 2026 – Corrected typos in section about Zoot Sims