CTI Japan 2013 "Supreme Collection" Series (Direct from Masters- No EQ Added)

Of the 37 kUDU albums, by my count, 29 were issued by King in JP as part of their 2013, 2016, or 2017 reissue series. The 6 Grover Washington, Jr. albums were not issued by King, but have been, at one time, released and in-print on CD.

I think there's at least one - Johnny Hammond's "The Prophet" - that has not been issued digitally to-date?

 

Yeah, I couldn't find that Johnny Hammond one after Higher Ground had sucked me in.

Listening to Grover's Trouble Man right now!

 

You're right - "The Prophet" is still missing. What a shame!
The numbers go from KU-01 to KU-39 (KUX-3536 was the live twofer by Grover Washington Jr.), thus making 38 releases in total, and only one (KU-10) is still not on CD.

 

Here are the famous 39:

KU-01 Johnny Hammond - Breakout 1971
KU-02 Lonnie Smith - Mama Wailer 1971
KU-03 Grover Washington Jr. - Inner City Blues 1971
KU-04 Johnny Hammond - Wild Horses Rock Steady 1972
KU-05 Esther Phillips - From A Whisper To A Scream 1972
KU-06 Hank Crawford - Help Me Make It Through The Night 1972
KU-07 Grover Washington Jr. - All The King's Horses 1972
KU-08 Hank Crawford - We Got A Good Thing Going 1972
KU-09 Esther Phillips - Alone Again, Naturally 1972
KU-10 Johnny Hammond - The Prophet 1972
KU-11 Eric Gale - Forecast 1973
KU-12 Grover Washington Jr. - Soul Box, Vol. 1 1973
KUX-1213 Grover Washington Jr. - Soul Box 1973
KU-13 Grover Washington Jr. - Soul Box, Vol. 2 1973
KU-14 Esther Phillips - Black-Eyed Blues 1973
KU-15 Hank Crawford - Wildflower 1973
KU-16 Johnny Hammond - Higher Ground 1974
KU-17 Idris Muhammad - Power Of Soul 1974
KU-18 Esther Phillips - Performance 1974
KU-19 S1 Hank Crawford - Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing 1974
KU-20 S1 Grover Washington Jr. - Mister Magic 1975
KU-21 S1 Beck 1975
KU-22 S1 Upchurch/Tennyson 1975
KU-23 S1 Esther Phillips W/ Beck - What A Diff'rence A Day Makes 1975
KU-24 S1 Grover Washington Jr. - Feels So Good 1975
KU-25 S1 Ron Carter - Anything Goes 1975
KU-26 S1 Hank Crawford - I Hear A Symphony 1975
KU-27 S1 Idris Muhammad - House Of The Rising Sun 1976
KU-28 S1 Esther Phillips With Beck - For All We Know 1976
KU-29 Grant Green With Hubert Laws - The Main Attraction 1976
KU-30 David Matthews With Whirlwind - Shoogie Wanna Boogie 1976
KU-31 Esther Phillips - Capricorn Princess 1976
KU-32 S1 Grover Washington Jr. - A Secret Place 1976
KU-33 S1 Hank Crawford's Back 1976
KU-34 Idris Muhammad - Turn This Mutha Out 1977
KU-35 S1 Hank Crawford - Tico Rico 1977
KUX-3637 M2 Grover Washington Jr. - Live At The Bijou 1977
KU-38 Idris Muhammad - Boogie To The Top 1978
KU-39 Hank Crawford - Cajun Sunrise 1978

 

Note that "Soul Box" and "Live at the Bijou" are duplicated.

 

15-16-17's a helluva trio!

 

liv3evil, forgot to press reply... But here it is:

2 albums: vol1 and vol2, released in 1973
KU-12
Grover Washington Jr. - Soul Box, Vol. 1
KU-13
Grover Washington Jr. - Soul Box, Vol. 2

KUX-1213
Box with the 2 albums released in 1974
Same contents as KUDU KU-12 + KU-13.

Double album
KUX-3637 Grover Washington Jr. - Live At The Bijou

 

Masterpiece on Soul Box 1 is a bit of a....oh, what's the word....?

 

Masterpiece ?

 

With this new 50th Anniversary Collection, I've finally gone in a grabbed the releases I was interested in. I think with these, I'll put an end to buying more reissues.
With the Supreme Collection 1 & 2 and the 50th Anniversary Collection, I've triple and quadruple dipped on many of them, looking for the magic unicorn called "best sound quality".

Straight Life / Freddie Hubbard
Beyond the Blue Horizon / George Benson
Canned Funk / Joe Farrell
In the Beginning / Hubert Laws
Goodbye / Milt Jackson *

Yama / Art Farmer
Carnegie Hall Concert / Gerry Mulligan & Chet Baker*
Benson & Farrell / George Benson & Joe Farrell
Morning Star / Hubert Laws

The CTI Jazz All-Star Band California Concert
The CTI Jazz All-Star Band At the Hollywood Bowl
Studio Trieste / Jim Hall
Pacific Fire / George Benson*
Pure Desmond /Paul Desmond
Freddie Hubbard & Stanley Turrentine In Concert Vol 1
Freddie Hubbard & Stanley Turrentine In Concert Vol 2
The San Francisco Concert / Hubert Laws

* = I really like and recommend.

Also take note that
The CTI Jazz All-Star Band California Concert & The San Francisco Concert are in their original LP presentations. The current US releases are each twice a long and both have very decent sound quality. A fact that I knew well but for some reason slipped my mind entirely before I made a compulsive buy.

 

Interesting to see that I ordered many of the same titles from this third batch (I only had a couple of these on other CD versions):

GERRY MULLIGAN / CHET BAKER Carnegie Hall Concert - CTI 50th Anniversary Special Collection
CHET BAKER/JIM HALL/HUBERT LAWS Studio Trieste - CTI 50th Anniversary Special Collection
GEORGE BENSON Beyond The Blue Horizon - CTI 50th Anniversary Special Collection
GEORGE BENSON Space - CTI 50th Anniversary Special Collection
GEORGE BENSON Pacific Fire - CTI 50th Anniversary Special Collection
GEORGE BENSON & JOE FARRELL Benson & Farrell - CTI 50th Anniversary Special Collection
THE CTI JAZZ ALL-STAR BAND California Concert - CTI 50th Anniversary Special Collection
PAUL DESMOND Pure Desmond - CTI 50th Anniversary Special Collection
ART FARMER Yama - CTI 50th Anniversary Special Collection
JOE FARRELL Canned Funk - CTI 50th Anniversary Special Collection
JOHNNY HAMMOND Wild Horses Rock Steady - CTI 50th Anniversary Special Collection
FREDDIE HUBBARD Straight Life - CTI 50th Anniversary Special Collection
FREDDIE HUBBARD/STANLEY TURRENTINE In Concert, Volume 1 - CTI 50th Anniversary Special Collection
FREDDIE HUBBARD/STANLEY TURRENTINE In Concert, Volume 2 - CTI 50th Anniversary Special Collection
MILT JACKSON Goodbye - CTI 50th Anniversary Special Collection
HUBERT LAWS In The Beginning - CTI 50th Anniversary Special Collection
ESTHER PHILLIPS Alone Again, Naturally - CTI 50th Anniversary Special Collection
ESTHER PHILLIPS Black-Eyed Blues - CTI 50th Anniversary Special Collection

I now have ordered a total of 71 titles from all three batches (28 of the first batch and 25 of the second), and that is pretty much all the titles I want.

 

Silver metallic cover of Ester Phillips' Capricorn Princess looks gorgeous.
Even the miniature 5"x5".

 

Cool graphic, I’ve never seen that, although dont have many of the Japan reissues. I do have the blu-spec CD of Higher Ground and it makes my top 10 of alltime jazz albums (not just Kudu and CTI), its that good.

 

This thread was great (even though I found it late) but since it was mostly specific to the Japan reissue catalogue, thinking of starting a seperate thread regarding all CTI/Kudu, who’s with me?

 

Other than Hammond’s Higher Ground tough to beat Grover Washington’s Inner City Blues (KU-03)

 

I'm ranking Higher Ground as my 2nd favourite, with Idris Muhammad's Power Of Soul as my clear no. 1.

I like most of Grover's stuff here, particularly Trouble Man and Masterpiece, which I think, without checking, are on Soul Box.

 

Also love the Joe Beck (with David Sanborn) album. Still feels like a CTI/Kudu release, but with some rock guitar tones, incl wah-wah. I got a reissue version with 2 bonus tracks, which are also both great.

 

One of the benefits of living in NY back in the day was the opportunities to see bands that normally only got together for studio projects live. Often, artists book gigs at clubs to 'break in' the new material before heading to the studio. This happens to be true to this day. For instance, drummer extraordinaire Dafnis Prieto and his big band did a week-long gig at the Vanguard before heading to the studio (last month they played Carnegie Hall!). The average New Yorker is clueless to the musical treasures of Manhattan. Back in the day I saw Joe Farrell right when he was recording Penny Arcade for CTI. Also saw Joe Beck during that 1st Kudu recording. Saw Grover, saw Freddie Hubbard....sigh, there was SO much to see and experience back than, it felt like it could/would never end!

 

Penny Arcade is one of my favorites. Steve Gadd’s drumming is fantastic. That same session included I Won’t Be Back which was the bets song from Upon This Rock. I would have preferred if they plugged that in for Geo Blue but maybe space limitations on the LP back in the day.

 

Two of my all-time CTI favorites are Milt Jackson's "Sunflower" and Bob James' "One". I know I've mentioned "Sunflower" many times in various CTI threads.

Re: James, the bitchin' (!) arrangement of Mussorgsky's 'Night on Bald Mountain' followed by 'Feel like Making Love' is so great...for however candy-ass it is 'Feel like Making Love' is quintessential CTI vibe and Rhodes comping. I can listen to that track on repeat and for some reason not get sick of it, and it always makes me feel happy, which is a considerable achievement these days.

 

Did these come with the inner gatefold art as well as front and back cover? Wondering if anyone could scan these and provide the images if you are not able to do so?

 

Those CDs came in ultraslim jewl cases. These types of cases don't have room for a back inlay. It's a front inlay that partially wraps around the back. Keep in mind that these were special limited editions from the 2013. They were officially released in 2016 in full jewl cases with full front and back inlays.

 

And all issued as a 2-cd set currently in print.