TT 449: Quincy Jones

The Hero is gone at 91

The question is: Who did the most to stay relevant in an unforced and creative fashion for the longest time?

The only possible three answers are Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, and Quincy Jones.

For me it ends up being between Herbie and Quincy —

— and in the final analysis, I give it to Q. From Frank Sinatra and Count Basie to Michael Jackson and “We are the World.” Incredible.

(Someday I would like to survey the film and television scores properly. There is so much there and so much of it is more idiosyncratic than one would would expect. Just one example: In terms of funky TV themes, nothing tops Sanford and Son. Legendary bassist Chuck Rainey deals out not just the low end, but also high register double-stops like a guitar. Rainey also accidentally plays an audible wrong note at the end. We call that a “clam,” and, indeed, this is about the biggest clam in pop culture that I can think of. Q left the clam in on purpose because the show was a comedy.)

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For Q’s 90th birthday I wrote up a personal favorite, Walking in Space.

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This morning I’m in Detroit visiting Mark Stryker, who contributed an important article for JazzTimes, “Quincy Jones in the 1950s.” Mark spun a few of the actual LPs for me on his deluxe hi-fi.

This 1955 session with Dinah Washington is thick with colorful Q-arranged horn lines. Keter Betts was the original (great) bassist in the famed trio with Wynton Kelly and Jimmy Cobb

A cool Basie album from 1958/59 has all Q pieces. Marshall Royal is in charge of a gorgeous setting of “The Midnight Sun Will Never Set,” which may be Q’s most famous original tune

Golden Boy from 1964 offers a bit of encroaching pop sensibility. Full orchestra colors handled are handled well. Bobby Scott (?) plays blues tack piano on “Seaweed.” Art Blakey also did a Golden Boy album; it was the current hit musical starring Sammy Davis

We all know “Soul Bossa Nova” from Austin Powers. Q’s chart is not just the 12-blues, but various 8-bar interludes. A masterpiece. Rest of the album is only a B-.

Quincy Jones is playing trumpet on this 1953 big band session for Clifford Brown in Paris. Must be one of Alan Dawson’s earliest records as well. Nice Q chart on “Keepin’ Up with Jonesy” w. trades between Brown and Art Farmer

Frédéric Adrian (author of a new French biography of Aretha Franklin) posted a photo of Quincy Jones with Alan Dawson, Gigi Gryce & Clifford Brown in Paris 1953.