CTI Records - The Cool Revolution

I'm normally not a big fan of compilations - they too often feel like a patchwork.  But the new 4CD compilation "CTI Records - The Cool Revolution" is a welcome exception.

CTI records was formed in 1970, and for the better part of the decade was home to a number of big name jazz artists.  Jazz purists would probably dismiss much of the labels output as "commercial", while defenders would call it the body of work of jazz artists looking for ways to keep jazz relevant in a music scene that was increasing rock-oriented.  Stuart Nicholson's fine book "Jazz Rock - A History" does a good job looking at the changing jazz scene over the late 60's and early 70's, and covers many of the CTI artists.

The four discs are house in a vinyl-LP sized gatefold cover - a nice way to evoke the early 70's heyday of the label.  The front cover features 16 of the labels most famous album covers arranged in a grid, with another 16 on the back.  A nice booklet contains generous liner notes, including detailed information on each track (recording date, artists in the session, and a thumbnail of the album the track is from). The package is nothing short of superb.

CTI had a house sound due in part to Rudy Van Gelder's engineering on many of the sessions.  It's a testament to the "CTI sound" that these discs flow so nicely.  Between the consistency of the superb recording & engineering, and the fact that many of the artists played on each other's recording, there is a surprising level of cohesiveness to these discs.  These discs were remastered from the original analog tapes, and the sound is warm and inviting.

And then there is the music, because after all that's what it is all about.  The collection is broken into 4 discs: "Straight Up", "Deep Grooves/Big Hits", "The Brazilian Connection" and "Cool and Classic".  As with any collection there will always be room for disagreement about tracks selected vs. those left out, and I'm not familiar enough with the entire CTI catalog to be able to make those kinds of judgments.  All I can say is that there is a hell of a lot of good music here.  I have a handful of the albums that these selections were culled from, but this compilation has really piqued my curiosity about some of the other artists that I had certainly heard of, but haven't really heard much music by.  With so much good music I hate to just pick a few to highlight, but the alternative takes on Miles Davis' "So What" on Disc One (one by Ron Carter, the other by George Benson) show how differently artists can interpret the same piece.  Airto's rendition of "Return to Forever" has long been a favorite of mine.  New to me is Johnny Hammond's excellent take on Carole King's "It's Too Late".  Jim Hall's superb "Concierto De Aranjuez" closes the collection out, clocking in at 19:18 and worth every second.  And of course there's Deodato's hit with the funkified "Also Sprach Zarathustra".  (As an aside, I consider the use of "Zarathustra" in Hal Ashby's 1979 political satire "Being There" one of the most inspired uses of popular music in a movie ever.  If you've seen the movie you know the scene.  If you haven't, it's highly recommended and is probably Peter Sellers' finest performance).


Another potential surprise for some listeners is just how versatile a drummer Billy Cobham is.  He appears on a dozen of the 39 tracks, covering various genres with ease.  Anyone only familiar with Cobham from his pyrotechnic work with the Mahavishnu Orchestra should be duly impressed by his sensitive touch on some of these tracks.

Oh, and for Fender Rhodes lovers, this collection is the shit.

Here's an excellent, in-depth review on All About Jazz.

A+.