Tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine (1934-2000) is best remembered for his string of Blue Note albums in the sixties and a brief foray at CTI in the early seventies, particularly his 1970 “breakout” Sugar. In 1974, Turrentine left CTI for a much more lucrative contract with Berkeley-based Fantasy Records, a label that was home at the…
Berto Pisano & Elsio Mancuso – “Nude per l’assassino” (1975/2025)
Finally. The classy Italian cult music specialists Four Flies Records have issued the soundtrack to the deliciously sleazy, sexy and seductive 1975 Italian giallo film Nude per’lassassino, otherwise known as Strip Nude for Your Killer. Neither the original soundtrack nor its intoxicating main theme were ever previously issued in an official capacity. Long thought lost,…
Revisiting “Supership” – George “Bad” Benson (1975)
In April 1975, Record World‘s Vince Aletti reported in his weekly Disco File column that CTI Records sent out a number of unlabeled 45s to disco-oriented DJs in the New York area. Each record bore only a small white sticker stamped with the neologism “SUPERSHIP.” No artist was credited. The single was accompanied only by…
Chet Baker – “Blood, Chet and Tears” (1970)
Like such recent Verve by Request vinyl releases as Kai Winding’s Modern Country (1964) and Stan Getz’s Marrakesh Express (1969), Chet Baker’s Blood, Chet and Tears is a bit of a stumper. None of these shameless crossover efforts sit well in the artists’ otherwise more jazz-oriented catalogs. Likewise, they’re neither classics nor widely sought after…
Revisiting “The Chicago Theme” – Hubert Laws (1975)
In May 1975, CTI Records released jazz flautist’s Hubert Laws’s album The Chicago Theme. Advance copies of the record immediately attracted the attention of New York-area DJs, who dug in to disc’s first cut, its title track. “The most talked-about new record this week,” wrote Vince Aletti in his May 17, 1975, Record World column…