40th Anniversary of CTI Records (2010-11)

Masterworks Jazz celebrated the 40th anniversary of CTI Records by reissuing six classic CTI titles remastered on CD in October 2010, followed by CTI Records: The Cool Revolution, a deluxe 4-CD multi-artist box set retrospective. The double-CD restoration of California Concert: The Hollywood Palladium (1971) followed with 90 minutes of music rarely heard and never before available as well as four collectible vinyl LPs issued in November 2010. Additional CTI albums were newly re-mastered and issued on CD in January, April and June 2011. More:

- Celebrating CTI Records' 40th Anniversary - Part Four
- Celebrating CTI Records' 40th Anniversary - Part Three
- Essential CTI: All About Jazz Playlists
- Reissuing CTI: The Richard Seidel Interview
- Celebrating CTI Records' 40th Anniversary - Part Two
- Review: California Concert: The Hollywood Palladium
- CTI That's Not On CD
- Top 10 Don Sebesky on CTI
- Review: CTI Records: The Cool Revolution
- Review: Hubert Laws "Morning Star"
- Celebrating CTI Records' 40th Anniversary

Wounded Bird (2009-11)

The specialty reissue label Wounded Bird has licensed several CTI titles from Sony. As of this writing, two Freddie Hubbard CTI titles were issued on CD in 2009 and three Joe Farrell CTI titles were issued on CD in 2011. These CDs have come out exactly like their LP forerunners (no extra tracks or added information), but curiously without the CTI logo displayed anywhere about. More:

- Joe Farrell CTI Classics Now on CD
- Freddie Hubbard on Columbia

Sbme Special Markets (2008)

In 2007, SonyBMG began reissuing much of their enormous CD back catalog under this budget-line imprint. Some of the CTI titles in SonyBMG's vaults began to appear in 2008 in the same configuration as previous CD releases. Absolutely nothing new appeared in this series. It just returned many titles, none of which are exceptionally difficult to find in the first place, back into active circulation.

Mosaic Contemporary (2007)

Michael Cuscuna's Mosaic label brought in producer Matt Pierson (Brad Mehldau, Joshua Redman, Bob James and scores of others) to oversee the launch of this well-conceived subsidiary devoted to reissues of the electric, often eclectic, jazz of the 1970s. As CTI figured largely into that sound, CTI reissues figure largely into this short-lived label's worthy releases.

CTI (2005?)

Sony's Legacy division scheduled - then indefinitely delayed - U.S. releases of several CTI titles during 2005 that were issued in the United Kingdom during 2003 and 2004. Titles originally scheduled for U.S. release on February 15, 2005, and scrapped include Astrud Gilberto's Gilberto With Turrentine, Nina Simone's Baltimore, Gabor Szabo's Macho, Stanley Turrentine's Don't Mess With Mister T. and the hardly necessary compilation The Soul Jazz Legacy (five of the 16 U.K. CDs reissued in 2003) and Deodato/Airto's In Concert and Idris Muhammad's House Of The Rising Sun (two of the 8 U.K. CDs reissued in 2004). Titles halted from May 17, 2005, release include Paul Desmond's Pure Desmond, Freddie Hubbard's First Light and Esther Phillips's Black-Eyed Blues (three more of the 16 U.K. CDs reissued in 2003) and Patti Austin's Body Language, Yusef Lateef's Autophysiopsychic (two more of the 8 U.K. CDs reissued in 2004).

CTI - The Master Series (2004 Releases) (2004)

The CTI Master Series continues with these eight releases issued in the United Kingdom in February 2004. One title (Patti Austin's Body Language) had never been issued on CD before. Four titles (Lalo Schifrin's Towering Toccata, Idris Muhammad's House Of The Rising Sun, Yusef Lateef's Autophysiopsychic and Upchurch/Tennyson) were previously unavailable on CD outside of Japan. Four titles (Idris Muhammad's House Of The Rising Sun, Lalo Schifrin's Towering Toccata, Upchurch/Tennyson and Airto's Free) feature bonus tracks that have never been issued before. One title (Fuse One) has not been issued as it was on LP on CD outside of Japan and the live album featuring performances from Deodato and Airto (In Concert) was reissued under the LP's original title and cover art with two bonus Deodato tracks that were previously available. Interestingly, of the two Kudu titles issued in this series, Upchurch/Tennyson, like previous non-CTI CD issues in this series, replaces the cover's Kudu logo with the CTI logo, but House Of The Rising Sun includes the original Kudu logo on the CD cover.

CTI - The Master Series (2003 Releases) (2003)

This joint US-UK co-production of CTI titles has thus far been scheduled for issue in the United Kingdom only. This series, issued September 2003, features 15 titles and another oddly-compiled and awkwardly-titled compilation (The Soul Jazz Legacy: CTI The Master Collection Volume 2). Three titles were previously unavailable on CD outside of Japan (Macho, Firefly, Black-Eyed Blues) and six include bonus tracks that have never been issued before (Macho, Black-Eyed Blues, Gilberto With Turrentine, Pure Desmond, First Light and Don't Mess With Mister T.). The five titles in this series that were issued in the 1997 American series (Havana Candy, Skylark, Sunflower, In The Beginning and Salt Song) feature the same track line-ups, discographical information and liner notes as before - but now packaged in the standard CD jewel box and not the far classier digipak. As in the 2002 reissues, CTI subsidiary titles in this series (Macho, Black-Eyed Blues) feature a CTI logo on the CD's cover rather than the original label's logo.

CTI - The Master Series (2002)

This odd series of CTI reissues was a cooperative initiative between the US and UK arms of Sony Records. 20 CTI titles and one oddly programmed compilation (CTI - The Master Collection) were issued in the UK during February 2002. For whatever reason, the US issued only 15 of these titles and the compilation (with different catalog numbers) between March and June of that year. All titles eschewed the previous issue digi-paks in favor of the industry standard jewel case and featured new and rather poorly written notes. Of these titles, only one (Power Of Soul) had never been issued on CD before. Three titles (The Main Attraction, Goodbye, Breakout) had never appeared on CD outside of Japan and four (RED CLAY, SUGAR, Bad Benson, What a Diff'rence A Day Makes) had slightly different track listings than previous CD issues. An additional oddity is that the five Kudu titles in this series (Power Of Soul, Wildflower, Breakout, The Main Attraction, What a Diff'rence A Day Makes) had the Kudu logo/number on the cover replaced with a CTI logo. 

The CTI Catalogue Re-Launch Series (1997)

This short-lived series brought out only 10 CTI titles on CD - four of which had already been issued in the "CTI on CD" series (Prelude, Beyond The Blue Horizon, Sunflower and Concierto) and one excellent compilation (Birth Of The Groove). This series restored the dynamic presentation of CTI titles for the CD age by presenting each of the 10 non-compilation titles in beautiful gatefold, digi-pack sleeves. 

Columbia Jazz Contemporary Masters (CTI titles only) (1990-1995)

This series reissued many Columbia-owned titles on CD (mostly from the Miles Davis catalog) and included a number of compilations drawn from the CTI titles in Columbia's possession. Stone Flower, Velvet Darkness, Baltimore and La Cuna are the four CTI titles in this series that are not compilations. This series is notable by its red border on the cover and a circular seal in the upper right-hand corner reading "Columbia Jazz Contemporary Masters." A tagline also appears on the cover of these releases indicating the music is "Digitally Remastered (Directly) From The Original Analog Tapes". Fortunately, Sony has since reissued many of the non-compilation titles in this series without the red border and corner seal - but only Stone Flower (in the US) and Baltimore and La Cuna (in the UK) have received such treatment

CTI On CD (1987-1989)

Columbia acquired the rights to Creed Taylor's 1970-1980 CTI recordings - perhaps the best and best-known recordings the label ever issued - in 1980. While Creed Taylor kept fighting to regain control of the music, Columbia did very little with this treasure trove of jazz until it unexpectedly acquired tape copies of the music in the mid 1980s. By 1987, the label began to reissue CTI titles in the now standard CD format. Overseen by former CTI publicity director Didier Deutsch, the initial series restored much valuable and historic jazz to public availability. While the austere presentation of these CDs was hardly deserving of the CTI legacy, many titles included never-before issued tracks, alternate versions of tracks and in one odd case, a completely different set of tracks (In Concert In Japan). Cover art was modified to add a banner at the top pronouncing "The Original CTI Recordings Digitally Remastered For Compact Disc" enhanced by a black and red burst of light graphic in the upper right-hand corner. Titles that didn't bear Freddie Hubbard, Stanley Turrentine, Hubert Laws or George Benson's name tended to disappear very quickly. Most of these were never reissued when stocks ran out. Indeed some titles like Moon Germs and Big Blues disappeared almost immediately, indicating that Columbia has never fully backed a sincere CTI initiative. All American issues of CTI titles - to this day - have been overseen by Didier Deutsch.