Aug 12, 2025 10:24 AM
Vocalist Sheila Jordan Dies at 96
Sheila Jordan, a vocalist who was celebrated for her scatting and lyric-improvising abilities, died Aug. 11 at her home…
Taylor’s label was a landmark in funk-influenced jazz-fusion.
(Photo: DownBeat Archives)Legendary record producer and label head Creed Taylor died at age 93 on Aug. 22. He was well known for his foundational work at Impulse!, Verve and A&M Records, but primarily for founding Creed Taylor International — also known as CTI Records — in 1970. Through his label, Taylor coached some of the greatest talents in jazz during the ’70s into recording many hugely selling releases, archly controlling every aspect of CTI projects. He worked closely with engineer Rudy Van Gelder and photographer Pete Turner to make his albums uniform in sound and appearance. Taylor didn’t stop there, founding the more R&B-influenced label Kudu as a subsidiary to CTI.
In its day, CTI put out albums by Airto, Allan Holdsworth, Bob James, David Matthews, Deodato, Don Sebesky, Esther Phillips, Fats Theus, Freddie Hubbard, Gabor Szabo, George Benson, Grover Washington Jr., Hank Crawford, Hubert Laws, Idris Muhammed, Milt Jackson, Joe Farrell, Kenny Burrell, Lalo Schifrin, Randy Weston, Ron Carter, Stanley Turrentine and more. The label is a landmark in funk-influenced jazz-fusion.
Taylor was expert at assembling players for these releases. Interviewed by Wax Poetics magazine in 2009, Taylor described his methods: “Well, look, it’s like a baseball manager,” he said. “It’s a different aesthetic. But it’s similar.”
Unfortunately, by the end of the 1970s, CTI folded after having over-expanded into distribution. Yet its legacy, and Taylor’s, looms large in jazz. DB
Jordan was a dyed-in-the-wool bebopper whose formative musical experiences were with Charlie Parker.
Aug 12, 2025 10:24 AM
Sheila Jordan, a vocalist who was celebrated for her scatting and lyric-improvising abilities, died Aug. 11 at her home…
“I don’t guess I’m going to excite you; I know I’m going to excite you,” Palmieri said in an August 1994 DownBeat feature.
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“What I got from Percy was the dignity of playing the bass,” Buster Williams said of Percy Heath.
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The Free Slave, Cosmos Nucleus and Sunset To Dawn: three classic Muse albums being reissued this fall by Timer Traveler Recordings.
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Record producer and “Jazz Detective” Zev Feldman has launched his next endeavor, the archival label Time Traveler…
