> He was a boundary-breaking innovator to many and a trend-chasing sellout
> to a few, but whether you liked his work or not the successes and
> longevity of Quincy Jones remain undeniable. His work spanned over fifty
> years of hit songs, and the roster of people or groups he played with,
> composed or arranged for, or produced is legendary: Billie Holliday,
> Cannonball Adderley, Dinah Washington, Ray Charles, Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy
> Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, the Count Basie Orchestra, Little Richard,
> Frank Sinatra, Herbie Hancock, Lalo Schifrin, Lesley Gore, Toots
> Thielemans, Dave Grusin, the Brothers Johnson, Luther Vandross, Diana
> Ross, Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, Barry
> White, Ice-T, and Big Daddy Kane just to name 25 of them. From 1974 to
> 1995, he put on his pants just like the rest of us, one leg at a time,
> except when his pants were on he often made Gold and Platinum records. He
> was fluent in darn near every genre that was important in his time: jazz,
> bebop, blues, rock, R&B, soul, gospel, funk, jazz fusion, disco,
> synth-pop, and even hip-hop and new jack swing near the end. For a lot of
> people he just was popular music.

> He was also a damn fine score composer. He wrote music for over 30 films
> as well as themes and episodic music for multiple TV shows and miniseries.
> In his 1964-72 heyday, few others in Hollywood were writing scores that
> were so sonically ambitious and genre-curious, with Quincy taking the same
> attitude he took with his other albums about pushing together new
> combinations of sounds and styles. He was even messing around with
> unconventional ensembles and samples in the late 1960s, decades before
> that became a more commonplace way of scoring films, and television
> audiences were introduced to the Moog synthesizer thanks to him. You can’t
> talk about the Silver Age of Hollywood without his music, though we often
> omit him in part because a good portion of his scores remain either
> unreleased or were only ever issued on LP (and maybe also because he
> didn’t always get the best assignments).

> When I started this project I only intended to cover his film scores, but
> curiosity about what overlaps might’ve existed with his other albums won
> me over, and before I knew it this had morphed into a comprehensive
> listening project of every album involving Q that I could get my hands on.
> Doing detailed commentary on everything would exhaust me and be a
> waste of time for most readers here, but I still wanted to cover my
> thoughts on each of his film and TV scores, perspectives on other major
> albums he worked on, and any other notable events or trends throughout his
> career. Most of his albums were thankfully available on digital/streaming
> services. A few other scores I already had the CD releases of or had to
> buy in that format. Alas, a number of major albums were released on LP
> back in their day (including several scores) but have not received
> reissues in any other formats; some intrepid folks have put rips of some
> out there for public consumption, but others (at least for now) remain
> lost to the ages including several records for baritone crooner Billy
> Eckstine and both albums he produced for Canadian composer Robert Farnon.
> And several of Quincy’s scores were never released in any format, though
> I’ll call those out as I go.

> I’ll also admit up front that there’s plenty of material Quincy did that
> never was recorded for any albums, so while this is as complete a survey I
> could do at the time it is by no means a holistic review of his entire
> career. And, with a few exceptions, I’m not delving too far into his
> personal life - kids, marriages, girlfriends, crazy stories, nicknames for
> everyone, etc. Seek out his well-received autobiography or his daughter’s
> acclaimed documentary film or any recent obituary if you want more on
> those subjects.

> We can also laugh that I went through this journey across over 120 albums
> and realized I’d already heard the four best scores he wrote.

> The upcoming posting plan, with each new entry dropping on Tuesdays and
> Thursdays:
> Chapter 1 - 1954-61: Jazz origins and the first film
> Chapter 2 - 1962-65: Bossa nova + Sidney, Sidney & Sydney
> Chapter 3 - 1966-67: The forgotten breakthrough film, Oscar noms, the Moog
> Chapter 4 - 1968-74: An Indian surprise, his best film score, groovy fun
> Chapter 5 - 1975-78: Back from the dead, being myopic, a fortuitous
> encounter
> Chapter 6 - 1979-82: Superproducer
> Chapter 7 - 1983-87: Once more with Frank, Purplegate, implosion
> Chapter 8 - 1988-99: A masterpiece, a flawed follow-up, the best concert
> album
> Chapter 9 - 2000 and beyond: Fiddy, Fantasia, full circle, finality
> Chapter 10 - The score and album rankings

> -----

> Next time: It begins.

Looking forward to this!