Guide to CTI & Kudu Records (Jazz Label Guide No. 1; Episode 280)

A new series of videos begins, by viewer request, focusing on individual jazz record labels. To begin the series, in this episode Allan discusses CTI, the label created by legendary producer Creed Taylor in 1967, as well at CTI's funky 1971 offshoot, Kudu.

[geniusjohn]

I bought many CTI and Kudu when in college in the 70's. I still have and love them all of course. Grover probably my favorite artist.

[FleagleSangria]

Excellent and well researched overview of these labels and a few of the desirable titles. Thanks!

[robertaglass]

Great vid! Love the Esther Phillips records Kudu put out!

[simonsartori]

Together with other university students, we watch your videos during class breaks, immediately afterwards we run to the record store here in Florence. Greetings from Italy, grazie!

[AlanSenzaki]

CTI was a very commercial label. The artist combo was recorded first. Later the orchestra was added as a more commercial arrangement.

[paulrevelli]

Mention must be made of the amazing "Giant Box" album by Don Sebesky. Not only is it a showcase for this amazingly talented arranger but also for a large part of the CTI artistic stable. The merging of Stravinsky's "Firebird Suite" and John McLaughlin's "Birds of Fire" (the enitrety of Side 1) alone is worth hunting this set down. It may have also been the only time CTI issued a two record set in a box as opposed to a gatefold cover. It is a monument to all things CTI.

[nickh.]

thank you very much for a very informative overview of a label I owe a few records of, but never knew much about. will definitely continue to watch your series. excellent stuff. greetings from Zurich, Switzerland

[karlbrowne]

Hi Allan. I’m very impressed with this foray into a more long form video. As ever, you pepper the video with a dazzling amount of well researched information but the transition to thirty minutes felt seamless and I now feel a little cleverer than I did before pressing “Play”! Up with this sort of thing!

[JohnVitiJr]

After watching both CTI videos I've purchased about twelve 6000 series records. You're research and recommendations have been extremely helpful to me. Thank you for efforts. They are both informative as well as entertaining. Happy Holidays, JV

[johnvandecker]

I just retired and now have time to go through my vast collection of jazz vinyl, cassettes, CDs, and streams. This is incredibly valuable, and looking forward to the complete series - I just listened to the BlueNote one. Thanks for all of your research and sharing your passion.

[TheJuggernautv]

Ooooh, this is a great idea! There’s a lot that happened behind the scenes which ended up shaping (or hindering) some of our favorite artists.

[JazzBums]

Just rewatched. Going to be getting into CTI more soon — this was super helpful. Thanks!

[brentcunliffe]

Those other comments have nailed it . Informative, entertaining, ultimately hard on the wallet. Excellent.

[lostandfoundsounds]

I've been doing a weekly Album of the Week series of the CTI, Kudu, Salvation, etc. labels over at A&M Corner in our Jazz forum. It's been an informative deep dive into all of these records.

[panagiotisargyropoulos]

Thank you for this one. Looking forward to more label guides.

[chriss]

Thanks for making this video. I didn't know too much about CTI. I can't wait to see videos about more jazz labels!

[AaronFitzgerald]

So cool! As a young person just now discovering the goldmine that is CTI, I'm so happy to watch something that gives so much context as I go listen through it all. Where did you learn most of this history? Are there any books either by Taylor or that detail CTIs history?

[victorbedrinov]

Finally someone to upload a video for this label, thanks man 😉

[AMJazzy]

I studied jazz at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and I've never heard of this part of history before! A mind such as Creed Taylor did well to keep jazz relevant throughout the 70s. I've always felt that there was a bias and championing of Blue Note's long drawn out records. I've listed down all the mentioned records in the video and get myself schooled! Thanks Allan!!

[paulvolpe]

Good stuff here! CTI was one of the first Jazz labels I really dug into.
Love to see a video on some of the independent labels like Black Jazz, Strata East, or Tribe.
Thanks for doing this!