Quincy Jones
Today we’re listening to Quincy Jones, an American bandleader, multi-instrumentalist, and producer from Chicago. Jones, whose fingerprints are on so many cultural touchstones over the last 60+ years, passed away on Sunday at age 91. As the New Yorker wrote, Jones “had something for everyone”: Michael Jackson’s Thriller, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Lesley Gore’s “It’s My Party”, the Austin Powers theme song (aka “Soul Bossa Nova”), Frank Sinatra’s last solo album, The Pharcyde’s “Passin’ Me By”… Yesterday, a new compilation called The Soul of Quincy Jones came out. It’s a nice entrypoint to Jones’s catalog, curating (mostly) instrumental tracks from studio records and film scores from the ‘60s and ‘70s. We’re also playing the 1959 record The Great Wide World of Quincy Jones, which was his sixth LP. It oscillates between cool lounge jazz and the energetic big band style that was his early signature, and there’s a particularly interesting arrangement of “Caravan.”
The Soul of Quincy Jones - Quincy Jones (121m, vocals on tracks 11, 12, 13, and 18)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Tidal
The Great Wide World of Quincy Jones - Quincy Jones (37m, no vocals)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Tidal
Enjoy your Thursday.
Words cannot entirely express how much I admire this man. The sonic landscape of the albums made under his own name alone is amazing musical cartography.