Jazz for aficionados

While browsing my CDs today came across this CD by Quincy Jones. I love this music. I think he is awesome!! Highly intelligent and an unbeliveable talent!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QF-3Ru2N8eQ

I know he is the greatest something, but just what, I can't answer. Hell, he even made Rap sound interesting.

I got this from Wiki. High praise, but it causes my BS alarm to start quivering. Although, he was one of the players that led me to Jazz.

From Wiki:
"Among his awards, Jones was named by Time Magazine as one of the most influential jazz musicians of the 20th century."

Could this be true? Perhaps The Frogman can enlightened us.

Cheers

You are correct, Quincy Jones is awesome and an amazing talent. Great orchestrator, composer and band leader/conductor. Great examples of this are Sinatra's "Live At The Sands", his work with the Basie band and movie scores like "The Pawnbroker" among many other accomplishments; not to mention something like 25 (?!?!) Grammy's. My undertaning is that he was also a pretty good trumpet player.

****"Among his awards, Jones was named by Time Magazine as one of the most influential jazz musicians of the 20th century."****

I would have to agree, but with a caveat. He was definitely a jazz musician and he was one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century; but, his greatest influence was not in jazz. Quincy's greatest talent and influence (and not to take anything away from all his other talents) was as a producer; particularly in the r&b genre. As a r&b producer he probably has no equal. His work on his own and Michael Jackson's (among others) records was pretty amazing if you are into that kind of stuff (I like it). He brings an accomplished jazz musicinan's sensibility to the r&b table which combined with a masterful understanding of what is technically possible in a recording studio yielded results which are pretty amazing.

I really like "The Dude". I also like "Sounds,,,,and Stuff Like That". One of my favorite cuts on that one is Herbie Hancocks' "Tell Me A Bedtime Story" on which he takes Herbie's improvised solo and multitracks the transcribed piano solo with a violin "section" (one player). His use of voices and horns to create textures is amazing. I particularly like how he uses the rhythmic handclaps as practically the only changing, and tension building, aspect of the music which, with the exception of Herbies's solo, is pretty repetitive. First it's one handclap per measure, then on two and four, then on every beat, then on upbeats and downbeats. It's kind of a cliche, but he truly uses the studio as his instrument. If you like that kind of slick studio sensibility, it's great stuff.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=utuIBp-YwSc

I referred to Q Jones in the past tense a couple of times; obviously those were typos he is still with us and doing great work.

"He brings an accomplished jazz musicinan's sensibility to the r&b table which"

Excellent point. Sort of like the session musicians that backed a lot of the MOTOWN groups. No garage bands there.

I have many of his records on LP including 'Sounds'. I remember where I bought "The Dude". At a Record store in Nuremberg, Germany. There are quite a few CDs / LPs that I remember that way. Don't know why.

"I referred to Q Jones in the past tense a couple of times"

I refer to them all in the present tense. To me, they are still with us, and will always be with us.

Thanks for the clip and the breakdown on his music.

Cheers

The great arranger/bandleader:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ptwCK5dKV5I

Amazing what a great orchestrator can do with just four horns:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3UTmuKLoEeQ

From the sublime to the......you decide:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=S21NdxDYH4M