(CelebrityAccess) – Creed Taylor, jazz producer and founder of Impulse! and CTI record labels, passed away Tuesday (August 23). He was 93. The cause of death has not been disclosed.
Impulse! Records announced his death on their social media accounts Tuesday.
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Taylor haad a career spanning five decades that produced nearly 300 albums, including producing albums by Quincy Jones and Larry Coryell. His gift as a record producer was getting the best out of jazz musicians in the recording studio.
Taylor was born and raised in Lynchburg, VA and graduated from Duke University in 1951. He then spent two years in the Marines, and one more year at Duke for graduate studies. A longtime jazz fan, who played trumpet, he’d chosen Duke in part due to the school’s jazz band, according to Stereogum. He played trumpet while studying psychology at Duke in a band called The Five Dukes.
Taylor then headed to New York to become a record producer, talking his way into an A&R job with Bethlehem Records. After leaving Bethlehem for ABC-Paramount in 1956, he founded Impulse! as an ABC-Paramount subsidiary in 1960. He signed John Coltrane to the label and oversaw a number of major releases in the pop / jazz genres. Pianist Bob James worked with Taylor at CTI in the 70s, and described him as “a great casting agent.” “He really had the foresight and taste to bring great musicians together in the studio,” James said in a 2018 interview.
Taylor left Impulse! six months after its launch and joined MGM’s Verve label, where he produced Jazz Samba by Stan Getz (saxophonist) and Charlie Byrd (guitarist), which brought bossa nova to the mainstream.
