Creed Taylor Production
A collection of work from the late, hugely influential label owner and producer.
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The late Creed Taylor was a giant in jazz music. He already had an impressive production resume before he founded the record label Creed Taylor Incorporated (CTI) in 1967 and the eventual subsidiary Kudu. CTI had an incredibly consistent, prolific run during the 1970s and Taylor’s production was influential across a multitude of genres. His catalog is an often used well of inspiration for sample-based producers and has been since the inception of sampling.
To give you a sense of how much he helped shape the sound of modern music, jazz legend Bob James’ two most-sampled songs (“Nautilus” and his cover of Paul Simon’s “Take Me to the Mardi Gras”) are both produced by Taylor. They’ve been collectively tapped as a sample source over 900 times.
As a lifelong lover of rap, instrumental hip-hop, and other sample-heavy genres, I’m endlessly fascinated by the different techniques producers use to flip Taylor-produced records. Recent years have also given me more time and space to appreciate his work on its own terms. With that in mind, I’ve assembled some playlists I’d like to share.
The first is a collection of his productions. Most of the songs on this playlist have been sampled at least a handful of times if not more. They also make for great listening. You can check out the playlist on Spotify and YouTube.
I’ve also become more familiar with the amazing cover songs Taylor produced over the years so I decided to compile some of my favorites into a playlist. There’s only a YouTube version of this one, though I may re-create it on Spotify at some point. It contains some truly remarkable recordings and I hope you’ll take some time to sit with it.
I was sad to hear of Taylor’s passing in 2022. I had hoped for a chance to interview him at some point. Though that wasn’t meant to be, I’m grateful for the amazing, enduring recordings he made with so many talented artists. His memory will most definitely live on through the music.
Thanks for this one! All I knew about Creed Taylor was his name drop by Thes One on the PUTS all time classic, "San Francisco Knights":
"We all-city like the Mayor, you see my name
On more fresh shit than Creed Taylor
The G for international ladies like a sailor"
Love seeing the influences of my favorite artists and digging into what they dug. Fun how one hip hop name drop can open up a whole new world of goodness.
cheers!