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Creed Taylor left the auspices of A & M to initiate CTI as an independent entity in May 1970. This little known part of CTI's history spanned only five releases. All were recorded between mid-1969 and mid-1970, during the time Taylor was recording memorable work for A & M and his own CTI label, but none of these recordings showed the personality or distinctive character of Taylor's other work. Here, Taylor was experimenting with productions outside of jazz - much as he had done earlier at ABC Paramount and, later, during his first years with Verve and MGM. Productions spanned a number of then-in styles including singer-songwriter folk (Kathy McCord), art rock (Flow, featuring future Eagle Don Felder) and soul jazz (Fats Theus's Black Out). Hipster Dave Frishberg's solo debut (Oklahoma Toad) and an unusual Hubert Laws record made in Memphis (Crying Song) also appeared in this series. Of these records, only Hubert Laws's Crying Song really stands out. Probably intended for release under Taylor's arrangement with A&M (catalog number SP-3026 was reserved for a Hubert Laws record at this time), Crying Song was recorded in Memphis with Elvis Presley's rhythm section. The album was originally intended as Stanley Turrentine's CTI debut. However, Turrentine was unable to make it and Laws was flown in from New York to do the date. So far, it is the only record from this series to be issued on American CD, although it's now out of print. Other reissues in this series include the 1999 CD releases of the Kathy McCord, Flow and Dave Frishberg discs by the Japanese Vivid label (all now out of print) and the 2003 LP release of Fat Theus's Black Out. Recent CTI releases (available by mail order only from www.ctirecords.com) find Taylor using the 1000 numbering sequence again, with these numbers preceded by a capital "S". |
