Quincy Jones, whose name became synonymous with excellence in music and whose contributions to jazz opened a new age of swinging elegance influenced by French pop and modern classical, died on November 3. He was 91.
Rather than write again about Jones's many accomplishments (see my Appreciation on Jones in today's Wall Street Journal or online here), I feel it's more illustrative to listen to his career in 14 clips. Please note that this merely scratches the surface:
Here's Jones's composition Work of Art recorded by the Art Farmer Septet in July 1953, with Jones on piano...
Here's Pogo Stick, Jones's first recording under his own name, recorded in Stockholm in November 1953: Quincy Jones' Swedish American All Stars featured Art Farmer (tp), Jimmy Cleveland and Ake Persson (tb), Arne Domnerus (cl,as), Lars Gullin (bar), Bengt Hallberg (p), Simon Brehm (b), Alan Dawson (d) and Quincy Jones (arr,cond)...
Here's Dinah Washington singing Quincy Jones's arrangement of Tears to Burn in July 1956...
Here's Ray Charles on piano plus an orchestra playing Jones's composition and arrangement of The Ray in 1957...
Here's Jones's arrangement of his composition Evening in Paris in September 1958...
Here's Jones's composition and arrangement of Pleasingly Plump in 1959...
Here's Jones's arrangement of Don Redman's Chant of the Weed, from The Great Wide World of Quincy Jones, in 1960...
Here's Jones's arrangement of One Mint Julep, from Ray Charles's Genius + Soul = Jazz in 1961...
Here's Jones's composition and arrangement of For Lena and Lennie from The Quintessence in 1961...
Here's Soul Bossa Nova in 1962...
Here's Moon River, arranged by Jones for Count Basie in 1963...
Here's Jones's arrangement of Mr. Lucky from Explores the Music of Henry Mancini in 1964...
Here's Tony Bennett with Jones conducting an orchestra playing his composition and arrangement of Theme for The Pawnbroker in 1966...
And here's Jones's arrangement of Stevie Wonder and Yvonne Wright's You've Got It Bad Girl, in 1972...
Bonus: Here's an hour-plus of Quincy Jones and His Orchestra in Belgium and Switzerland in 1960...
Note: For more JazzWax posts on Quincy Jones, go...
