Label Guide: CTI
CTI Records (Creed Taylor Incorporated) is a jazz label founded in 1967 by producer/A&R manager Creed Taylor, initially as a subsidiary of A&M Records. Those early albums used the regular A&M label with just a small 'CTI' logo in the upper right quadrant. Taylor had previously founded Impulse Records and worked for Verve Records where he earned the reputation as an industry-respected producer of jazz albums.
CTI became an independent label in 1970 and used several distributors for its releases, among them Motown and CBS. Kudu Records was started as a sister label in 1971, and later, CTI subsidiaries named Salvation Records, Greenestreet, and Three Brothers were launched. The label was initially very successful with best-selling album releases by Deodato or Grover Washington Jr.
In 1978, CTI Records had to file for Chapter XI bankruptcy, but much of its catalog has remained in print (Creed Taylor launched the 8000 reissue series in 1979), and the label continued active until 1984.
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1. Label Variation
first CTI label (1967 - 1970)
The CTI releases until 1970 were distributed by A&M Records and used the regular A&M label with a small 'CTI' sign in the upper right quadrant.
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2. Label Variation
second CTI label (1970)
The green label was used only for the five albums of the CT-1000 series (and maybe a few very early numbers of the CTI-6000 series, but we don't have proof for that at the time of writing, in the United States. Foreign markets like Germany used this label design until 1973 for selected albums.
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3. Label Variation (I)
third CTI label (1970 - 1979)
This third design was used for most of the 1970s. There are different variations of this label, albeit minor, with different shades of orange (yellow to brown) and with/without side number, with/without address. This label was used for the CTI-6000 and CTI-7000 series.
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3. Label Variation (II)
third CTI label (1970 - 1979)
This third design was used for most of the 1970s. There are different variations of this label, albeit minor, with different shades of orange (yellow to brown) and with/without side number, with/without address. This label was used for the CTI-6000 and CTI-7000 series.
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3. Label Variation (III)
third CTI label (1970 - 1979)
This third design was used for most of the 1970s. There are different variations of this label, albeit minor, with different shades of orange (yellow to brown) and with/without side number, with/without address. This label was used for the CTI-6000 and CTI-7000 series.
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4. Label Variation
fourth CTI label (1976 - 1982)
This fourth, beige/grey label with lots of small CTI logos around the perimeter was used in the late 1970s, into the 1980s, possibly overlapping with the previous label.
Please Note: there are at least two more CTI label variations (USA) for the 1980s, but we haven't added them yet as we do not have proper scans at this time. -
German Label Variation
German CTI label (1972)
An example for the international CTI labels, here a 1972 pressing from Germany. CTI generally used the same (slight variations) of its U.S. labels for foreign markets.
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Spanish Label Variation
Spanish CTI label (1970)
An example for the international CTI labels, here a 1970 pressing from Spain. CTI generally used the same (slight variations) of its U.S. labels for foreign markets.