Quincy Jones

 

These days, Quincy Jones, or "Q", is better known as an industry mogul and power broker than a producer/arranger/performer.  In the 60s, he became the first African American in the Hollywood "Boy's Club", and he hasn't looked back.  With an empire encompassing publishing, television and films, he doesn't have much time for music anymore.  At ninety-one years old, Q is still active, and as he said at his ninetieth birthday celebration, "The word retirement isn't in my vocabulary".

Q got his start as a jazz arranger and trumpeter, working on such classics as 'The Genius Of Ray Charles' and Frank Sinatra's version of "Fly Me To The Moon," in addition to albums as a leader.  Moving into pop in the 60s, he produced Lesley Gore's grating/unforgettable "It's My Party" among others.  As the years went by, his own albums became less jazz and more pop, while his own performing and songwriting contributions diminished.  By the 1980s, he confined himself to behind the glass in the control room. He's been nominated for seventy-six Grammys and has won twenty-six times.

Q's credentials are unmatched: He produced the biggest-selling album in the world, Michael Jackson’s "Thriller", and one of the largest selling singles, "We Are the World".  He has worked with Peggy Lee, George Benson, Dinah Washington, Paul Simon, Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra, Duke Ellington, Donna Summer, Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin, Lionel Hampton, and Leslie Gore, among many, many others. 

Q's written thirty-four film scores including,  'The Pawnbroker', 'In the Heat of the Night', 'In Cold Blood', 'Mackenna’s Gold', 'The Italian Job', 'Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice', 'Cactus Flower', 'John and Mary', 'The Out-of-Towners', 'They Call Me Mister Tibbs!', 'The Anderson Tapes', 'The Hot Rock', 'The New Centurions', 'The Getaway', 'Roots: The Saga of an American Family', 'The Wiz', 'The Color Purple' and produced the soundtrack for the 2024 film 'Lola'.  He's also written the theme music for the television shows 'Sanford and Son', 'Ironside', and 'The Cosby Show'. 

Quincy Jones has defied the boundary lines for music genres because he sees it as a whole.

Today's freeload is two of my favorite Quincy albums, 'This Is How I Feel About Jazz' and 'Walking in Space'.

'This Is How I Feel About Jazz' was originally on the Paramount label, which became part of ABC, whose jazz catalog became part of the famed Impulse record label in the early 60s under Creed Taylor and Bob Thiele.

The 'This Is How I Feel About Jazz' sessions were overseen by Creed Taylor at Beltone Studios, NYC Sept. 1956.  The musician's roster is the First Call list of the New York monsters of the time: Phil Woods, Zoot Sims, Lucky Thompson, Art Farmer, Milt Jackson, Charles Mingus, most of Q's fellow Basie crew like Ernie Royal, Joe Wilder and Jimmy Cleveland, Jerome Richardson, Hank Jones, Paul Chambers, Charli Persip, Herbie Mann, and Dr. Billy Taylor.

Also on this release are tracks from Q's 'Go West, Man!', recorded in L.A. in from February 1957. For this one Q gathered West Coast heavyweights: Pepper Adams, Benny Carter, Walter Benton, Buddy Collette, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Herb Geller, Lou Levy, Mel Lewis, Shelly Manne, Charlie Mariano, Red Mitchell, Art Pepper, Bill Perkins, Jack Sheldon,  and Leroy Vinnegar, with impressive results.

In 1969, Quincy Jones was thirty-six when he recorded 'Walking in Space'.  After scoring twelve films in five years he wanted to go back into the studio, where there would be no film monitors to watch and images to play along with, to record a jazz album with some of his favorite musicians.  Producer Creed Taylor also thought it was a good idea and signed him to his label, CTI.

'Walking in Space' was a return to the idea of arranging and conducting a band, much the way Jones started in music by writing arrangements for the big bands of Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Tommy Dorsey.

In typical Q fashion, he attracted some of the best musicians to appear on his comeback jazz album.  They included trombonist J.J. Johnson, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, flautists Roland Kirk and Hubert Laws, Bob James on electric piano, Toots Thielemans on harmonica and guitar, Ray Brown on bass, drummer Grady Tate, and Eric Gale on electric guitar.  The album was recorded and engineered by Rudy Van Gelder at his studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

The musical tone for the album was rock and rhythm and blues played on electric instruments and incorporated into the context of a big band. It was a strange musical mix that worked.  Q's trademark arrangements of brass and reeds are as always innovative and exceedingly polished.

The musical centerpiece of the album is Q’s arrangement of "Killer Joe".  It was written by Benny Golson, his former bandmate in the Dizzy Gillespie orchestra. The song features delicious solos by Hubert Laws on flute and Freddie Hubbard on trumpet but, because of the way the song is mixed, the driving force behind it is Ray Brown’s thumping bass.

'Walking in Space' received two Grammy Awards.

For the freeload, what are some of your favorite movie soundtracks?