Quincy Jones was born on the 14th March 1933, in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
He started playing trumpet as a child, and developed an interest in arranging and scoring music at an early age. Jones eventually studied music at the Berklee College Of Music.
1951 saw Quincy joining The Great Lionel Hampton as a performer and writer, touring Europe successfully with a wonderful line up including such up and coming talent as Art Farmer, Clifford Brown, Alan Dawson and Gigi Gryce.
In 1953 Jones left Hamptons Band and began writing arrangements for many former colleagues and other jazz musicians such as Tommy Dorsey, Ray Anthony and Count Basie: Mainly on a freelance basis.
In the mid - 50'2 he worked as Musical Director for Dizzy Gillespie, the result of which was the 1956 classic album "World Statesman".
In the late 1950's and early 1960's Jones scored music and directed orchestras, and recording sessions for many artists such as Frank Sinatra, Brook Benton, Johnny Mathis, Ray Charles, Dinah Washington and Billy Erkstine.
One notable album was for Dinah Washington "The Swingin' Miss D"'.
Quincy continued to write big band scores for himself others and notably Count Basie such as the albums "One More Time" (1958/59) and Lil 01 Groovemaker Basie (1963), becoming a major player in American popular music.
Becoming increasingly active as a record producer by the late sixties and early seventies, Jones composed scores for about 40 feature films, and literally hundreds of TV shows, with films such as "In The Heat Of The Night" (1967), "The Pawnbroker" (1965), "In Cold Blood" and TV themes such as "Ironside" and "Roots", and he continued to produce and release his own recordings as this album is a prime example.
Quincy first worked as a record producer for the Mercury Labels, French based company Barclay, but eventually becoming the first black Vice President Of Mercury’s New York Division. Quincy then spent about twelve years with the highly successful and famed A.M Records after which he formed his own label called "Quest!"
1974 saw Jones suffer 2 brain aneurysms, and despite this he quickly bounced back and produced highly successful albums in the late 1970's, and 1980's for Aretha Franklin, George Benson, Michael Jackson and the brothers Johnston to name but a few!
For George Benson “Give Me The Night” was a massive success, and then for Michael Jackson “Off The Wall” and even more successfully “Thriller”, the latter of which I believe Is still the best selling album of all time.
Quincy also produced the Number 1 charity single in 1985 “We Are The World”.
In more recent times Quincy has reverted to music production and production work for films and as a musician, arranger, producer composer in Jazz in particular but also other forms of music has made an enormous impact on the entire music industry, and this album shows him to be a jazz treat.
