George Benson: "All Clear" + "Ode to a kudu" (from "Beyond the blue Horizon")

(the recent releases show the chimney in a pitch-black background and a beige surrounding while the photo on the backside is the same motif as the one on the front)


Bennson is probably the busiest Cti musician, having recorded 12 albums + a truckload of appearances on other musicians Cti recordings + a number of Lp's that he made under the guidance of Creed Taylor before Taylor moved on to give birth to Cti in 1967.

Beyond the blue horizon presents Benson right at the height of his creative peak during his Cti tenure and shows him as a very versatile musician. It starts with a nod to Miles Davis by adding a slightly R&B'ish "So what" (probably an idea by Davis' alumni Jack DeJohnette on drums).

"The gentle rain" mixes beautiful gentle latin beats with some more complex uptempo parts and on the very nice "All Clear" Benson leans back and swings in a romantic fashion (most notably together with Clarence Palmer's organ, as it adds a nice touch, even though Palmer sticks to simple chords).

"Ode to a kudu"'s title speaks for itself: a sparingly instrumentalised ballad with an "emphasis" on Benson, but sadly waaay too short. I'd love to hear the band exploring this piece much longer.

"Somewhere in the east" meanders at the beginning quite some time between the Congas and the guitar before Benson finally decides to take off with (as the title suggests) east-asian flavor (which I don't feel very comfortable with here).

I find that this is all in all a fantastic album but the often complex and sophisticated rythm group (with subsequently Benson fidaddling in the same manner) makes it probably less interesting for the soul-jazz-funk-r&b-cti beat fascists. But even then it is absolute worthwhile.

As this seems to be commercially easily available (correct me if I'm wrong), I'll add just two tracks, the extended (and superior IMO) alternate tracks from "ode to a kudu" and "all clear").

Please make sure to add some comments, I'd like to hear your opinion!

The next two blog entries will be about Grover Washington and Freddie Hubbard

Fuse One - Silk

In one of the last recordings before Cti fell semingly completely apart, Creed Taylor assembled again a batch of Cti-veterans and added a couple newcomers, including the then 19-year old up and coming Wynton Marsalis for a (yet again) shortlived group billed "Fuse one" that resulted in three recordings (two for Cti).

The first track ("Silk") and the last ("Sunwalk") bear some pop elements that make me shudder slightly but they alternate with downtempo parts with some nice soli which fully compensate. Eric Gale has some wonderful subtle yet funky spots on "Silk".

"In Celebration Of The Human Spirit" is an uptempo tune with bassist Stanley Clarke in the spotlight who (along with the others) delivers some fast soli that are not really my taste. While not necessariloy a bad, they sound less accessible and subtle than what you may expect from a Cti-album.

"Hot Fire" is in a faster latin tune that reminds me a bit to Carlos Santana, this time, none of the musicians is being showcased, almost everyone gets the chance for a solo. Interesting to hear Marsalis on a song that is almost dancable if you keep his later, conservative albums in mind.

This has never been re-issued outside Japan, hence you'll come into the pleasure of the full album. It seems not to be too difficult to grab a second hand Lp via ebay et al. You may want to search for Fuse one's compilation ("the complete recordings") that has both albums and which is also available on CD.
instead of this one which is just 33 minutes long.

Please give a big round of applause to blog reader "Alicia" who send me this gem! :-D

Eric Gale: Forecast

- Sorry for not posting lately, my interweb connection was screwed up and I had severe problems with the upload. -

Eric Gale is the artist that I truly discovered after I was introduced to Cti (I noticed him for the first time on my first Cti-albums by Turrentine and Hubbard). Gale almost exclusively appeared as a sideman, he began playing mostly for various Soul-Jazz and R&B greats (Including Fats Domino, Jimmy Smith and Bobby Timmons but his looong tenure at Cti seemingly led to an increasing demand for him as a session musician.

Beside the huge number of Jazz recordings (inluding appearances for Sadao Watanabe, Herbie Hancock, The Fania All Stars (!)) he also kept playing R&B and Pop tunes (for Paul Simon, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Bill Withers, Billy Joel among many others).


He had sadly just rarely the chance to show his chops under his own name and recorded just this one album under the Cti/Kudu-belt (a couple of his later albums feature quite a few big names from the Cti-scene, including the string orchestra). He also played with the instrumental R&B outfit "Stuff".

The album varies a lot. The georgeous, lush and slow Jobim tune "Dindi" has Gale in the spotlight and truly shows what he stands for while the opener "Killing me softly" (Gale also played the song on the popular version by Roberta Flack) should've been left off (coffee powder advertisements come to my mind). "Cleopatra" is in a similar pop-mood but includes some nice soli. "White Moth" is the typical one in the Cti-vein and lets you tap your fingers and shake your head (I'm wondering though what Gale had in mind with the snare drum breaks inbetween). On "Tonsue Corte" Gale hints at Reggae and the funky "Forecast" reminds me to the lighter blaxploitation soundtrack songs by Isaac Hayes.

It's a shame that this is not available on Cd outside Japan (unless you want to pay for the expensive import).

Make sure to check out his nice guitar solo (starts at 3:28) in this Grover Washington video:

Jim Hall: "Concierto de Aranjuez" (from "Concierto")

This one is currently my favourite. Recorded in the spring of 1975, It's one of the last albums in the long list of the famed 6xxx-series and yet another one that makes me bang my head as Hall practically made just this sole appearance under his own name on Cti (his other album, "Youkali" contains material that has already been issued elsewhere but with the addition of a truckload of overdubs).


Hall and his guests (Baker, Hanna, Desmond, Carter, Gadd) play throughout the album with a cool, very relaxed tone that fits from the first to the last second (although one can hear vaguely a few shouts (?) on the Bonus Track "Rock Skippin"). Desmonds sax and Bakers horn shimmer constantly and make me wish that some of the soli would never end.

The "Concierto de Aranjuez" that I've included is an interpretation (the adagio to be precise) from a famous composition by the spaniard Joaquin Rodrigo and probably the most well known one in Jazz circles as it has already been famously covered by Miles Davis some 25 years earlier prior to this issue. This time, it's been arranged by Cti-regular Don Sebesky but without the additional orchestra.

I'm afraid my knowledge about classic music is fairly limited, maybe one of you guys/gals can add something noteworthy? It has been reissued quite a few times (make sure to search for the version that adds 5 bonustracks) and should be easy to find if you're on a tight budget.

Now make yourself comfy (it's almost a whopping 20 minutes long), get yourself your preferred drug (dark chocolate in my case) and turn the speakers up. This is as smooth as smooth can get.

Wtf? The blog is gone? Now what?

If you're visiting other blogs, you may have noticed that some have closed shop because apparently some disgruntled trolls find it cool to get the blog/hosting links reported. I hope this won't happen here but I can hardly prevent this. If it does happen and you still want to be updated then please post your email addy here and I'll get in touch with you. Please obfuscate your addy (like myname [at] greateemailservice.com) to prevent that it's being picked up by the spammers.

What to get? Vinyl or Cd?

Cti albums must be heard with the best possible material - period. Almost all recordings (thanks to the now legendary sound engineer Rudy van Gelder) have a stellar recording quality and the sonic depths with the large bands + the orchestras needs to be fully explored - preferably on CD. I have quite a few albums in good quality on vinyl but it's just not the same, the CD's especially the remastered reissues are superbe. Many of the reissues contain some previously unreleased bonus tracks that make the CD even more inferior to the vinyl.

Finding them is a different issue. As I already wrote, many of them are out of print for a looong time, a few gems have been issued in Japan only (I so hate the record labels for this legalese crap). I luckily bought a couple from 2001 here in Germany for very little money, it's worth to check their website for updates.

Vinyls are more difficult to find, except the very popular albums, for example from George Benson and Grover Washington. If you belong to the few enthusiasts that want a holistic experience then you'll certainly like Cti's gatefold covers (designed by Pete Turner) that have similar to the Blue Note and ECM albums a distinctive design (usually a simple but colorful motif with a black surrounding). Many of them are certainly a grace on the shelf (a couple are quite boring though).

Milt Jackson: "People make the world go round" (from the album "Sunflower").

This one is an odd addition to the Cti Catalog and probably belongs to the ones that are the furthest away from the distinctive Cti-sound. At the time of the recording (1972), Jackson was still busy with both the Modern Jazz Quartet (which he should brake up two years later) and issuing albums under his own name. He sticks mostly to boppish material with some hints towards post-bop, modal and cool jazz. The other Cti-regulars (Hubbard, Hancock, Carter) show that they still master the old styles (Hancock plays on some tracks acoustic piano only instead of the Fender Rhodes/Organ that most Cti-albums have), Billy Cobham sits behind the drums, Jay Berliner plays acoustic Guitar and the relatively unknown Ralph McDonald takes care of the percussion (plus the usual, dreamy reeds and strings orchestra directed by Don Sebesky).

It's by all means a very good and recommended album but far too conventional to belong to the top Cti-albums. Get it if you have an open ear or if you can find it as a bargain . I've included "People make the world go round", which is by far the catchiest song on the album.

A word about the net ressources

You may have already noticed that I'm not a native speaker, my english lacks some eloquence and I hate flowery reviews with a passion. That's why I'll point you to some ressources on the web that I'll use frequently and that should do the job.

The All Music Guide is usually my first address for brief reviews , discographies, etc. Check it out by yourself as it's quite big. When digging for Cti-records one should watch out that the albums do not always bear the "Cti"-name as Cti's catalog was bought by Columbia after it's bankruptcy and Columbia itself by Sony. Cti itself had a couple imprints (Kudu, Salvation, etc.) under which many important recordings were issued. Check Doug Payne's site for more information about it.

As already mentioned, Doug Payne has the #1 website when it comes to Cti, discographies, rosters for every album and much more. Go ckeck it out. Doug also writes for allmusic.com and allaboutjazz.com, so it's quite possible that it's his work if you find something there.

Besides that, a quick internet search with "artist name" + "album name" gives good results, often from allaboutjazz.com or so.

Jeremy Steig: Firefly

It's a sad fate that quite a few artists on Cti's roster have released just a very small number of albums, often resulting in them being completely overlooked. One of them is a flutist called Jeremy Steig, who recorded (in april '77) one noteworthy album shortly before Cti became bankrupt (1978). This set is surely funky but don't expect the soulfulness from Turrentines or Hubbards albums. Eric Gale is probably the best known Cti-musician on this album.

This one seems to be out of print (please let me know if I'm wrong) at least in most parts of the world and therefore you'll come into the luxury of the full album in the best possible quality (files in .flac-format).

Stanley Turrentine: "Gibraltar" (from the album "Salt Song").

This is a prime example for what the All Music Guide calls "Slow Burning Funk", a typical Cti Song. Taken from the "Salt Song"-Album, highlightes are Ron Carter with a simple but effective earworm bassline, Eric Gale with a beautiful, subtle (but waaay too short) guitar solo (he's getting a better exposure on the next track, "I told Jesus") and of course Turrentine. Airto Moreira provides (as usual on Cti) spare percussion. The Album features (like most Cti releases) a lush string orchestra, this time with arrangements from Deodato Read the annotations from Doug Paynes excellent website for more information. The link is in the comment section. More from Turrentine's Cti-records later on this blog.