Quincy Jones - Quincy Jones: Big Band '2022

Tracks list

Tracklist:

01. The Birth Of A Band
02. Moanin'
03. Syncopated Clock
04. Stockholm Sweetnin'
05. Along Came Betty
06. Tuxedo Junction
07. Boogie Stop Shuffle
08. Pink Panther Theme
09. Whisper Not
10. Straight, No Chaser
11. Ghana
12. I Remember Clifford
13. Hard Sock Dance
14. Sermonette
15. Everybody's Blues
16. G'wan Train (Short Version)
17. Tickle Toe
18. Evening In Paris (Album Version)
19. For Lena And Lennie
20. Little Karen
21. Robot Portrait
22. Moanin' (Alternate Take)
23. Lester Leaps In
24. A Change Of Pace
25. Quintessence
26. Parisian Thoroughfare
27. Happy Faces
28. The Midnight Sun Will Never Set
29. I Never Has Seen Snow
30. Blues In The Night
31. Take Five
32. Comin' Home Baby
33. Cast Your Fate To The Wind
34. Pleasingly Plump
35. Caravan
36. Tone Poem
37. Moanin' (Live In Zurich / 1961)
38. Billie's Bounce (Zurich Jam Session)
39. Lester Leaps In (Live At Newport Jazz Festival / 1961)
40. Moonglow
41. Chinese Checkers
42. Trouble On My Mind
43. Air Mail Special (Live In Zurich / 1961)
44. A Sleepin' Bee
45. Boo's Bloos
46. On The Street Where You Live
47. The Hucklebuck
48. Mack The Knife
49. Desafinado


 moreQuincy Delight Jones, Jr. was born in Chicago, Illinois on March 14,
1933. While still a youngster, his family moved to Seattle, Washington and he
soon developed an interest in music. In his early teens, Jones began learning
the trumpet and started singing with a local gospel group. By the time he
graduated from high school in 1950, Jones had displayed enough promise to win a
scholarship to Boston-based music school Schillinger House (which later became
known as the Berklee School of Music). After a year at Schillinger, Jones
relocated to New York City, where he found work as an arranger, writing charts
for Count Basie, Cannonball Adderley, Tommy Dorsey, and Dinah Washington, among
others. In 1953, Jones scored his first big break as a performer when he was
added to the brass section of Lionel Hampton's orchestra alongside jazz legends
Art Farmer and Clifford Brown. Three years later, Dizzy Gillespie tapped Jones
to play in his band, and later in 1956, when Gillespie was invited to put
together a big band of outstanding international musicians, Diz chose Quincy to
lead the ensemble. Jones also released his first album under his own name that
year, a set for ABC-Paramount titled This Is How I Feel About Jazz.

In 1957, Jones moved to Paris in order to study with Nadia Boulanger, an
expatriate American composer with a stellar track record in educating composers
and bandleaders. During his sojourn in France, Jones took a job with the French
record label Barclay, where he produced and arranged sessions for Jacques Brel
and Charles Aznavour, and traveling American artists like Billy Eckstine and
Sarah Vaughan. Jones' work for Barclay impressed the management at Mercury
Records, an American label affiliated with the French imprint, and in 1961 he
was named a vice-president of Mercury, the first time an African-American had
been hired as an upper-level executive by a major U.S. recording company. Jones
scored one of his first major pop successes when he produced and arranged "It's
My Party" for teenage vocalist Lesley Gore, which marked his first significant
step away from jazz into the larger world of popular music. (Jones also
freelanced for other labels on the side, including arranging a number of
memorable Atlantic sides for Ray Charles.) In 1963, Jones began exploring what
would become a fruitful medium when he composed his first film score for Sidney
Lumet's controversial drama The Pawnbroker; he would go on to write music for 33
feature films.

In 1964 work with Count Basie led him to arrange and conduct sessions for Frank
Sinatra's album It Might as Well Be Swing, in collaboration with Basie and his
orchestra; he also worked with Sinatra and Basie again as an arranger for the
award-winning Sinatra at the Sands set, and would produce and arrange one of
Sinatra's last albums, L.A. Is My Lady, in 1984.

While Jones maintained a busy schedule as a composer, producer, and arranger
throughout the '60s, he also re-emerged as a recording artist in 1969 with the
album Walking in Space, which found him recasting his big-band influences within
the framework of the budding fusion movement and the influences of contemporary
rock, pop, and R&B sounds. The album was a commercial and critical success --
the title song won a Grammy award for Best Instrumental Jazz Performance, Large
Group or Soloist with Large Group -- and kickstarted Jones' career as a
recording artist. At the same time, he began working more closely with
contemporary pop artists, producing sessions for Aretha Franklin and arranging
strings for Paul Simon's There Goes Rhymin' Simon. While Jones continued to work
with jazz artists, many hard-and-fast jazz fans accused him of turning his back
on the genre, though Jones always contended his greatest allegiance was to
African-American musical culture rather than any specific style. (Jones did,
however, make one major jazz gesture in 1991 when he persuaded Miles Davis to
revisit the classic Gil Evans arrangements from Miles Ahead, Sketches of Spain,
and Porgy and Bess for that year's Montreux Jazz Festival; Jones coordinated the
concert and led the orchestra, and it proved to be one of the last major events
for the ailing Davis, who passed on a few months later.)

In 1974, Jones suffered a life-threatening brain aneurysm, and while he made a
full recovery, he also made a decision to cut back on his schedule to spend more
time with his family. While Jones may have had fewer projects on his plate in
the late '70s and early '80s, they tended to be higher profile. He produced
major chart hits for the Brothers Johnson and Rufus & Chaka Khan, and his own
albums grew into all-star productions in which Jones orchestrated top players
and singers in elaborate pop-R&B confections on sets like Body Heat,
Sounds...And Stuff Like That!!, and The Dude, the last of which resulted in a
Grammy for Producer of the Year. Jones' biggest mainstream success, however,
came with his work with Michael Jackson. Jones produced his breakout solo album,
Off the Wall, in 1979, and in 1982 they teamed up again for Thriller, which went
on to become the biggest-selling album of all time. Jones was also on hand for
Thriller's follow-up, 1987's Bad, and the celebrated USA for Africa session
which produced the benefit single "We Are the World" (written by Jackson and
Lionel Richie), and he produced a rare album in which Jackson narrated the story
of the film E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. Jones' own Back on the Block, released
in 1989, hit the pop Top Ten and led to five more Grammy awards, most
prominently Album of the Year.

Having risen to the heights of the recording industry, Jones moved from scoring
films to producing them in 1985. His first screen project was the screen
adaptation of Alice Walker's novel The Color Purple, directed by Steven
Spielberg. In 1991 he moved into television production with the situation comedy
The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, which gave Will Smith his first starring role.
Jones' production company also launched several other successful shows,
including In the House and Mad TV. He produced a massive concert to help
commemorate the 1993 inauguration of president Bill Clinton, and at the 1995
Academy Awards won the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. In 1996 Jones performed
at the Montreux Jazz Festival to celebrate his 50th anniversary in the music
business. The concert was captured on video and released as a DVD.

Jones spent the rest of the '90s and first decade of the new century
concentrating on his music publishing business, completing Q: The Autobiography
of Quincy Jones, and being an "unofficial" cultural ambassador for the United
States. In 2004 he helped to launch the We Are the Future (WAF) project,
benefiting children in conflict-inhibited situations all over the globe. In
2010, Jones released Q: Soul Bossa Nostra, his first album in 15 years. As with
many of his previous solo albums, the set featured appearances by popular
vocalists like Amy Winehouse and Usher. Three years later, he was inducted into
the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a recipient of the Ahmet Ertegun Award. He
continued working with artists including Emily Bear, Nikki Yanofsky, and Terrace
Martin, and released the Chaka Khan collaboration "Keep Reachin'," recorded for
Quincy: A Life Beyond Measure, a 2018 documentary about his illustrious career.
~ Mark Deming

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