{"id":7410,"date":"2016-03-14T16:05:39","date_gmt":"2016-03-14T23:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=7410"},"modified":"2016-03-14T16:55:28","modified_gmt":"2016-03-14T23:55:28","slug":"quincy-joness-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2016\/03\/quincy-joness-birthday\/","title":{"rendered":"Quincy Jones’s Birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"quincyQuincy Jones turns 83 today. His story has had many chapters since his early days in Seattle and his apprenticeship in Lionel Hampton\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trumpet section. Jones went on to lead an important big band, score motion pictures, become one of the most successful producers in pop music and be named an NEA Jazz Master. As I wrote a few years ago in reviewing a box set of some of the Jones band\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s greatest recordings<\/a> from his years with Mercury Records,<\/p>\n

The inventiveness, sparkle and audacity of Jones\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 arrangements in the 1950s and early \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc60s gave his music freshness that was notable when he was in his twenties. These works of his youth are still among the most vital big band recordings of an era in which Count Basie, Woody Herman, Duke Ellington and Stan Kenton were going strong. Jones\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 inventive scoring of his compositions, including \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Stockholm Sweetnin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Midnight Sun Will Never Set\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hard Sock Dance,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is matched by his settings of standard songs, and pieces by contemporaries like Horace Silver, Benny Golson, Ernie Wilkins, Bobby Timmons and Bill Potts.<\/p>\n

As for execution, Jones put together a band whose various versions had some of the best players of the day, among them Clark Terry, Zoot Sims, Freddie Hubbard, Phil Woods, Budd Johnson, \u00c3\u2026ke Persson, Buddy Catlett, Urbie Green, Julius Watkins, Les Spann and Patti Bown. Stranded in Europe by the failure of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Free And Easy,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a stage production they were a part of, his musicians sacrificed to stay together and tour the continent, reflecting their loyalty to Jones, his music and each other. When the band is at its best in these five CDs\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwhich is most of the time\u00e2\u20ac\u201d it is easy to hear what inspired that spirit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you have forgotten how the spirit manifested itself, here is a reminder, the band in Europe in 1960 with one of Jones\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most celebrated compositions, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Midnight Sun Will Never Set. The alto saxophone soloist is Phil Woods.<\/p>\n

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