Vic Chirumbolo

Vic Chirumbolo entered the recording industry as sales manager for several labels, including Warner Bros. Records (ca. 1959-60), Verve Records (ca. 1961-1962), Prestige (ca. 1964) and Kapp Records (ca. 1965). Often specializing in labels with strong jazz repertoire, he also worked for the MCA Records and Capitol Records labels during this period. When producer Creed Taylor launched CTI Records as an independent entity in February 1970, he brought Chirumbolo on as vice president in charge of sales and marketing. While many legacy jazz labels like Blue Note, Prestige and Taylor’s own Impulse! were failing to find an audience, Chirumbolo’s efforts helped make CTI the single most successful jazz label of the seventies. By 1973, Chirumbolo left CTI to start the short-lived CKI Records and form VCI Production, which handled productions for Michael Gusick’s Versatile label. Between 1977 and 1980, Chirumbolo produced about a dozen records for Versatile (and later Buddah) by such artists as Richard "Groove" Holmes, Cornell Dupree, Jorge Dalto and Carmen McRae and helped license about twenty additional recordings by Lionel Hampton, Nina Simone, Screamin' Jay Hawkins and others. Chirumbolo’s productions for Versatile were styled very much like the early CTI records with gatefold sleeves, striking cover art and large casts of New York City session musicians, often arranged by Mario E. Sprouse. Indeed, Chirumbolo recorded albums by former CTI artists Grant Green and [a22855] and Versatile’s earliest releases even utilized CTI’s 6000 series numbering. Unfortunately, many of the well-produced jazz sessions were mired by then fashionable disco treatments and while the albums never found much of an audience, they have since become cult collector’s items. Returning to CTI briefly between 1981 and 1983, Chirumbolo passed away on October 24, 1987, at age 58.