Sampled Over 3,500 Times

Creed Taylor's jazz production and its critical role as a sample source.

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Pictured above is the late, legendary jazz producer and label founder, Creed Taylor. The undated Discogs photo you see is from many decades ago. Taylor passed away in 2022 at the age of 93.

According to Discogs, Taylor racked up 1,334 production credits throughout his storied career while working with luminaries such as George Benson, Eumir Deodato, Bob James, Wes Montgomery, Esther Phillips, and countless others.

He produced for labels like ABC-Paramount Bethleham Records, Impulse!, Creed Taylor Inc. (CTI), and Verve. Taylor also founded Impulse!, CTI, and Kudu, a label housed underneath CTI.

Beyond being incredibly prolific, Taylor sought to make jazz music more commercially successful and accessible to the average listener. He also understood the importance of cover art and marketing in drawing in perspective listeners, as evidenced by the memorable covers on all three labels he founded.

Taylor's work deserves to be revered and celebrated on its own merits. He produced a plethora of jazz albums that are considered classics. His work stands up well against the sands of time, often sounding crisp and fresh even if it came out over five decades ago. See Freddie Hubbard’s 1971 record First Light for one of many such examples. The album just gets better with age.

Beyond building a massive cache of classic productions, Taylor is also responsible for inspiring and influencing countless sample-based producers. His entire catalog has been repurposed close to 4,000 times, while songs like Bob James’ enduring classic “Nautilus” have been sampled on over 400 records. Here’s one of my favorite “Nautilus” reworks.

I love Creed Taylor’s body of work, and every year I discover new gems in his seemingly endless archive. I have two playlists of his production I wanted to share with my readers.

One is a playlist that leans heavily towards songs of his that have been sampled on recognizable records. It’s available on Spotify and YouTube.

The other one is a YouTube playlist of Creed Taylor-produced cover songs. Both of these playlists are stacked with amazing music to explore. Let me know what you think of them when you have a chance.

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