Back right around the time life was returning to the new normal after the great intermission, I made contact with Jim Beard again and offered him a bottle of his favorite bourbon to finally agree on a date for an interview. Jim had plans to tour with Steely Dan, and I was busy with life. We exchanged a few more emails, but the interview never happened. Sadly, it’s been posted on social media via friends and contacts that Jim passed away last week.
They All Came Out To Montreux
If there was ever a party that you knew about, and wished you could have attended, this would be it for me. I wish I could have been at the Montreux Jazz festival in 1969, or possibly 1972. My awareness of the power of music started with the 1969, the Les McCann & Eddie Harris album, “Swiss Movement” [1]Ahmad Jamal […]
#AirtoFloraDay
Most of my music collection consists of vinyl records from the 1960’s, 70’s and assorted years since then. Probably two thirds of that is original, purchased new. When I buy records these days it’s most likely used. Musicians get zip/nothing/nada from second hand sales, they also get very little from, streaming services. Reissues (new music) provides a limited income and […]
Let’s talk about CTI/A&M Covers
Opinions about how to clean your vinyl records are 10-a-penny. You can purchase equipment that costs thousands of dollars, or you can do it yourself with a few carefully chosen chemicals and a brushes. I’m a squeekyclean Vinyl Record Cleaning machine myself[1]https://squeakycleanvinyl.com/products/squeakycleanvinyl-mk-iii. This post isn’t about that, it’s about something I’ve never seen before, cleaning the actual vinyl album sleeves. […]
All Things Ron Carter
Even before the pandemic was over Sir Ron had been busy. Ron does regular member only zoom calls, which are both instructive and entertaining. If you don’t get emails from Ron’s team, I can recommend signing-up at https://roncarterjazz.com you can also get a 15% coupon for merch’ and ever-increasing catalogue of material. This post though is to summarize a big […]
The Music Came First
The Snapshots Foundation, Johnathan Bewley produced bio-pic of Creed Taylor has been released on Vimeo. A great number of contributions from Herb Alpert, Ron Carter, Bob James, Harvey Mason, Lenny White, Hubert Laws, George Benson, Ashley Kahn and more. In many ways, as Creed would have wanted, it’s as much a tribute to those artists, than it is to Creed. […]
One-Night Stand: A Keyboard Event
Today, May 10th, 2022, Ron Carter returns to Carnegie Hall as part of the celebration of his 85th birthday. Unfortunately I won’t be there, and I thought it would be interesting to look back at one of Ron’s prior appearances at Carnegie Hall. It came as part of an incredibly ambitious pair of events conceived by George Butler and produced […]
NEA Jazz Masters 2022
Congratulations to this year’s musicians recognized as 2022 NEA Jazz Masters—Stanley Clarke, Donald Harrison, Jr., Billy Hart, and Cassandra Wilson. There will be a concert tonight live in San Francisco that will also be live streamed and available via many radio stations. For details of the coverage online and on radio, the concert starts at 7:30pm Pacific Time and all the details can […]
The Risks Of Buying Or Selling Records Online
Buying or selling vinyl music online can be problematical, but I doubt Astrud Gilberto would have expected to be involved in a scheme to arrest someone over it. For me, apart from one package which went AWOL, and another package that arrived pretty destroyed. The bad news is that package had contained a rare Esther Phillips test pressing that was […]
First Light Live
It’s September 14th, this year marks 50-years of the start of recording at the Van Gelder Studio in New Jersey of Freddie Hubbard’s Grammy winning album “First Light“. I wrote about it on this date last year[1]On This Day: First Light – Creed Taylor Produced (ctproduced.com) This year, I have a video of the title track from the album, along […]
Creed Taylor Month – September 2021
Creed Taylor month was announced and first held in 1968. For background and press cuttings from that time, see this entry. There are lots of indications that the music created by the artists of CTI and KUDU is as popular now as Creed could have ever hoped. In the last year, as well as my own #ctproduced Instagram id[1]ctproduced posts […]
Snapshots and Creed Taylor
Update: September 1st, 2022. A link to the finished video can be found here[1]http://ctproduced.com/the-music-came-first/. The Snapshots Foundation has been posting clues for a while that they were working on something related to Creed Taylor. As well as the more recent teaser promo about their Creed Taylor project, which they originally posted back in January. In August 2019, Snapshots announced that […]
The Story of the CTI All-Stars Live
This is the fascinating story of the CTI All-Stars, a pioneering jazz ensemble of the 1970s and beyond. I’ve spanned the history of the group, detailed accounts of individual performances, and the spread of their tours. I also delved into financial aspects and provided insight into the challenges faced by the musicians.
Happy Born Day – Chet Baker
Chesney Henry “Chet” Baker Jr. (December 23, 1929 – May 13, 1988, Age 58) was an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist. He is known for major innovations within the cool jazz subgenre leading him to be nicknamed the “prince of cool”. I have to admit, that while I know many of Chet recordings, I know very little about the man. […]
On This Day: Rhythmstick
Coincidentally, when I started turning my curiosity about Creed Taylor and his producing career into research, it was because I thought it would be fun to cover the event’s of 50-years ago, and the first releases of the startup of the independent CTI Records by Creed Taylor International. The juxtaposition of today and tomorrow’s posts couldn’t be more stark though. […]
We Knew What We Had – The Hill District
WE KNEW WHAT WE HAD: THE GREATEST STORY NEVER TOLD This was too interesting not to pass along. I originally received a link from Marc Myers, @jazzwax , in his daily newsletter. I’d read about George Benson’s youth and development around the clubs in Pittsburgh from his autobiography, “Benson”. It’s a fascinating read, but without context, doesn’t reflect how remarkable […]