🎷 AotW: CTI Deodato: Deodato 2 (CTI Records CTI 6029 / CTI 8025)

Deodato: Deodato 2

CTI Records CTI 6029
Released 1973
Pictured at right

Assigned CTI 8025 for reissue, but never released

A1: Nights In White Satin [6:00]​

A2: Pavane For A Dead Princess [4:30]​

A3: Skyscrapers [6:35]​

B1: Super Strut [8:55]​

B2: Rhapsody In Blue [8:50]​

Arco Bass – Alvin Brehm, Russell Savakus
Arranged By, Conductor – Eumir Deodato
Baritone Saxophone – Joe Temperley
Bass – John Giulino, Stanley Clarke
Bass Trombone – Tony Studd
Cello – Alan Shulman, Charles McCracken, George Ricci
Design [Album] – Bob Ciano
Drums – Billy Cobham, Rick Marotta
Engineer, Mastered By – Rudy Van Gelder
Flute – George Marge, Hubert Laws, Jerry Dodgion, Romeo Penque
French Horn – Brooks Tillotson, Jim Buffington
Guitar – John Tropea
Keyboards – Eumir Deodato
Mastered By – Rudy Van Gelder
Percussion, Congas – Gilmore Degap, Rubens Bassini
Photography By [Back Cover & Liner] – Duane Michals
Photography By [Front Cover] – Alen MacWeeney
Producer – Creed Taylor
Trombone – Garnett Brown, Wayne Andre
Trumpet – Burt Collins, Joe Shepley, Victor Paz
Trumpet, Flugelhorn – Alan Rubin, Jon Faddis, Marvin Stamm
Viola – Alfred Brown, Emanuel Vardi
Violin – David Nadien, Elliot Rosoff, Emanuel Green, Gene Orloff, Harold Kohon, Harry Cykman, Harry Glickman, Harry Lookofsky, Irving Spice, Joe Malin, Max Ellen, Paul Gershman

Recorded April, May 1973 at Van Gelder Studios

Note: the Qobuz version, and some CD versions, swap(s) the track order and adds three bonus tracks (two penned by Deodato, the third by Becker/Fagen):

1. Super Strut [9:29]
2. Rhapsody In Blue [8:43]
3. Nights In White Satin [6:01]
4. Pavane For A Dead Princess [4:24]
5. Skyscrapers [7:00]
6. Latin Flute [4:19]
7. Venus [3:28]
8. Do It Again [5:30]

Amazon product ASIN B002HI70BK

Deodato 2, Deodato - Qobuz

Listen to unlimited streaming or download Deodato 2 by Deodato in Hi-Res quality on Qobuz. Subscriptions from $10.83/month.

www.qobuz.com

Deodato - Deodato 2

Explore songs, recommendations, and other album details for Deodato 2 by Deodato. Compare different versions and buy them all on Discogs.

www.discogs.com

 

[Rudy]

Not being a Gershwin fan, I find that to be the only weak track on this album. But otherwise, it's a solid album, especially "Super Strut" which is one of Deodato's finest arrangements.

Some releases pair Deodato 2 with the Prelude album, including a two-fer on SACD. A good way to get both records in one package.

The "Do It Again" bonus track is a cover of Steely Dan's first hit.

 

[Harry]

I seem to own two 45s from this album. The first is a CTi single in a picture sleeve that looks like the album cover with "Rhapsody In Blue" as the a-side at 3:45 and "Super Strut" on the b-side in a 4:26 length.

Meanwhile, there's also another 45 of "Super Strut" on MCA Records in two different lengths. One say Long Version at 6:08, the other says Short Version at 3:30. It's got a copyright date of 1974. Is this a different version for MCA?

 

[Harry]

I recall "Rhapsody In Blue" getting some airplay on the FM pop station I listened to, likely the 45 shorter version.

What's up with the MCA version of "Super Strut"? Did he leave CTi and take his record to MCA the following year?

 

[Rudy]

If it's from the 1974 album Artistry on MCA, it's a live version.

 

[Harry]

If it's from the 1974 album Artistry on MCA, it's a live version.

Ah. That explains it. Did he leave CTi to go to MCA?

 

[Rudy]

It seems like it. Deodato 2 was the last CTI album in 1973, as he had two album releases in 1974 on MCA. I know that later in CTI's history, Sebesky and Deodato as arrangers both faded into the background and another "house" arranger took over for the later albums (David Matthews). I haven't looked yet to see which last few Deodato-arranged albums were.

 

[Nemily]

I recall "Rhapsody In Blue" getting some airplay on the FM pop station I listened to, likely the 45 shorter version.

That radio play is why I purchased Deodato 2. This was a consequential album for me. After this album I became infatuated with jazz fusion.

I had already been a devoted fan of jazz from the liked of greats such as Dave Brubeck, jazz fusion-pop horn extraordinaire Maynard Ferguson and jazz Latin rock such as Santana (Gregg Rolle on keyboards), however it was Eumir Deodato that truly peaked my interest into the different electric pianos used in the 70s (Deodato often played Rhodes) which led me to discovering Antonio Carlos Jobim, Herbie Hancock, Bob James, Milt Jackson (Vibraphone) and other CTI greats.

After Deodato 2 and for a good part of the rest of the seventies I found myself drawn to music using the synthesizer and electric pianos and especially smooth jazz fusion Steely Dan. A lot of the music I now adore is rooted back to Deodato 2 and that 45 Rhapsody in Blue.

 

[Michael Hagerty]

Not being a Gershwin fan, I find that to be the only weak track on this album. But otherwise, it's a solid album, especially "Super Strut" which is one of Deodato's finest arrangements.

Being a Gershwin fan, "Rhapsody in Blue" doesn't detract from the overall album at all for me.

That said, though, Deodato was finding that the "Also Sprach Zarathustra" formula (modern-ish minute or so of the famous melody, six and a half minutes of improv, then back to the melody for a final minute) had its limitations.

When he moved to MCA and released his next studio album, WHIRLWINDS, it didn't work at all.


PRELUDE: Billboard peak # 3 ("Also Sprach Zarathustra" #2)

DEODATO 2: #19 ("Rhapsody In Blue" #41)

WHIRLWINDS: #63 ("Moonlight Serenade" did not chart)


He tried it again with "Caravan" (in a medley with "Watusi Strut") and with "Take the A Train" (did not chart), but "Also Sprach Zarathustra" was not a repeatable moment.

For those that haven't heard them:








He seemed to relax the formula a bit for "Take the A Train" and I liked it enough to add it at KOLO in Reno.

 

[Rudy]

That said, though, Deodato was finding that the "Also Sprach Zarathustra" formula (modern-ish minute or so of the famous melody, six and a half minutes of improv, then back to the melody for a final minute) had its limitations.

CTI was also big on jazz covers of classical themes. I could list at least a dozen attempts by various CTI artists over the years, and I can't say that some of those worked very well either.

 

[Michael Hagerty]

CTI was also big on jazz covers of classical themes. I could list at least a dozen attempts by various CTI artists over the years, and I can't say that some of those worked very well either.

"Hubert Laws, please pick up the white courtesy phone. Hubert Laws."

 

[Rudy]

"Hubert Laws, please pick up the white courtesy phone. Hubert Laws."

Two Bachs and a Mozart on Afro-Classic. And that's just one album!

I had an article elsewhere with eight or more classical CTI tracks but I remember having to spread out the artists (IOW, tried for only one track per artist). I'll have to make a separate thread with a listing of these.

 

[Michael Hagerty]

Two Bachs and a Mozart on Afro-Classic. And that's just one album!

Which he then followed up with:

 

[4mc]

It seems like it. Deodato 2 was the last CTI album in 1973, as he had two album releases in 1974 on MCA. I know that later in CTI's history, Sebesky and Deodato as arrangers both faded into the background and another "house" arranger took over for the later albums (David Matthews). I haven't looked yet to see which last few Deodato-arranged albums were.

1972/3 was a messy period for CTI, they made so much money off "Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001)" and had a choice hand it over in tax or spend it on deductible expenses, they did the latter, set up a distribution network and moved offices.
Deodato was signed for a 3-record deal which was completed with "In Concert" recorded April 1973 and wasn't about to sign another deal with CTI when he thought he should have received more of the 2001 profit.

Interestingly, they'd been using a Bob James arrangement of Sprach Zarathustra for the CTI All Stars live concerts before it was selected in the pre-studio planning meeting. Creed was the primary driver for the selection of all the classical tracks as he knew they would resonate with the audiences he was chasing.

 

[4mc]

He tried it again with "Caravan" (in a medley with "Watusi Strut") and with "Take the A Train" (did not chart), but "Also Sprach Zarathustra" was not a repeatable moment.

and not repeatble CTI. Instead of looking at it as a one off success, Creed and his senior staff believed they'd hit their secret formula and thought they would be able to repeat many times. That never happened.

Ultimately it cost Creed his company, his house and his Mercedes, and arguably his marriage. CTI was a slow motion train wreck, the industry piled on and picked the flesh from the bones and apart from KUDU releases which were driven and effectively produced by David Matthews and Tony Sarafino, CTI would have crashed and burned by the end of 1975.

++Mark.

Creed Taylor Produced

A look at the music, musicians and albums produced by legendary producer Creed Taylor

ctproduced.com

 

[Rudy]

That was sad how CTI, flush with cash from the hit, thought they should branch out into distribution so they could cut out the middleman. And the expenses of running distribution starved them of cash, leading to losing George Benson (who was on the verge of hitting it big with "This Masquerade") and after closing all the distribution offices, turned to Columbia for distribution as well as a loan to keep CTI going, which led to bankruptcy.

The final section of the following Creed Taylor interview documents the financial problems CTI ran into:

Creed Taylor (1929-2022)

Creed Taylor, a highly influential and maverick jazz record producer and entrepreneur who recorded virtually every major jazz artist while in charge of the music at six major record labels over the course of his career, died August 22 in...

www.jazzwax.com

 

[Michael Hagerty]

That was sad how CTI, flush with cash from the hit, thought they should branch out into distribution so they could cut out the middleman.

I wonder how much of that hubris was Creed trying to signal to Herb & Jerry that he could launch a successful indie, too?

 

[Rudy]

Initially the A&M deal was for distribution.

Early on, the deal was that A&M would handle the distribution and everything else. After an album package was complete, I would just send it over to them, and they took it from there. I wasn't involved in the marketing in the beginning, but I did a lot of radio promotion.​

But it was when suggestions from A&M started coming in that the seeds were planted...

But he also liked jazz a little too much, perhaps. He made suggestions to me about arrangements. It was a subtle thing, and I saw conflict in artistic direction looming. ..... If you get too connected with another person in your own area of artistic achievement, you risk falling for that person's suggestions. One day I woke up and it hit me. I realized that I had to leave A&M. I thought I should be listening carefully to other aesthetics. ..... Herb loved Paul Desmond, Wes Montgomery and other artists I was producing. But I could sense through his suggestions that he had a different creative vision for them. And I started to feel myself becoming obligated to incorporate his suggestions. His recommendations were taking my sensibilities in the wrong direction. I knew I had to set up a record company on my own to accomplish what I had in mind.​

It was an amicable parting but in a sense, I feel as though Taylor was signaling to others that he had an aesthetic in mind and to please not interfere with it. And that going out on his own was the only way to preserve what he had started during the A&M-distributed phase of CTI.

The distribution disaster seems like a case of Taylor, being inexperienced in the financials of running a record label, trusted the word of someone who thought The Answer was to take on their own distribution to generate more money, now that they had a hit record. Only, they didn't seem to realize all of the costs involved in running their own distribution. (It's a take on the old joke--"If you want to make a small fortune, take a large fortune and start a record label.") If anything, he didn't have a Jerry Moss at his side, someone with business sense and street smarts in the recording industry.

Didn't Warner get in a similar spot when they were growing? (I'd have to reread Stan Cornyn's book for the details, but I know they had hit a distribution snag at some point.)

 

[Michael Hagerty]

Didn't Warner get in a similar spot when they were growing? (I'd have to reread Stan Cornyn's book for the details, but I know they had hit a distribution snag at some point.)

They did. It was the scale of WEA (Warner/Elektra/Atlantic) that saved them.