Quincy Jones
From Quincy with Love
Qwest/Warner Bros.
This collection of love songs that Quincy produced over the course of the last thirty-some years started out as no more than a personal home tape that Quincy played at his parties. These songs are his favorite love songs from his sessions during that time. Quincy had already been taping similar compilations to give to his friends for the last several years. At Oprah Winfrey’s 40th birthday party, he made 40 copies for the 40 guests in attendance. They all raved about them, passed them around among their friends, and kept calling and asking for more copies. At that point, I suppose he finally decided that this would make a viable release, or at least get everybody off his back.
I certainly can’t argue against Quincy being one of the most talented producers and arrangers working in the “Adult Contemporary” field. Personally, this style of music is not my cup of tea. I genuinely like only about a handful of these songs enough to pull it out for my own listening enjoyment. Most of them have been played to death on the Adult Contemporary stations, and I would’ve never bought this for myself. However, this release does seem to do something for my wife. So, in a roundabout way, I am developing some fond associations with some these songs. While it might not be a purist’s way of thinking, music certainly can be an effective tool or lubricant in many situations. This release is two discs long, and should give anybody plenty of time to accomplish their mission. That semi-disclaimer aside, I’ll move on.
The earliest offering is Frank Sinatra’s rendering of “The Shadow of Your Smile” from the 1966 release Sinatra at the Sands with Count Basie and His Orchestra . The most current work is culled from Quincy’s Q’s Jook Joint album of 1995. Michael Jackson weighs in with three cuts. Barry White, James Ingram, and Patti Austin are all well represented here, showing up on a total of nine cuts in a variety of configurations. Luther Vandross is naturally “in the house,” as is R. Kelly , Siedah Garrett, Al B. Sure!, El DeBarge, George Benson, and a few others. My favorites are Toots Thielemans’ “Velas,” Sarah Vaughn’s last recording, “Setembro (Brazilian Wedding Song )” with Take 6, and “At the End of the Day (Grace),” featuring Barry White, Toots Thielemans, and Mervyn Warren.
Matching songbooks for this release are available at your local music store, or available on-line at http://www.warnerbrospub.com. Also for your surfing enjoyment, http://www.qwestrecords.com and http://www.wbr.com/quincyjones
