It’s almost ludicrous how Quincy Jones can simply flick his musical finger and instantly a herd of this generation’s most iconic musicians — from Usher to Amy Winehouse — will stampede over to genuflect at this man‘s studio and plop their coveted skills onto wax. It’s beyond awe-inspiring and jaw-dropping. And with Q: Soul Bossa Nostra, Quincy does it again.
Speaking of ludicrous (pun intended), machine-gun tongued rapper Ludacris is simply one of a red carpet-like guest list to contribute to Q: Soul Bossa Nostra, a highly entertaining and infectious jazz-infused CD with surprising twists.
Keeping with the word ‘ludicrous‘, it’s nearly impossible to mentally capture an image of Q, who is arguably the world’s most acclaimed, celebrated and awarded music producer and film score composer, as a wanna-be gangster coming up in the social jungle of South Side Chicago. That is, until rival thugs reached out and administered unthinkable sanctions on Q as punishment for venturing onto their turf. Thank God his wayward foray into criminality was brief and led to an incidental — some say, divinely directed — bump into a piano inside a Seattle store that he and his petty theft partner broke into.
The musical capital accrued over the years makes the 77-year-old Q an eminently royal figure. The award-winning motion picture film scores, the utterly unforgettable theme songs (“Sanford & Son“), the collaborations with musical revolutionaries, and the almost preternatural ability to detect transcendent skills in an instant that later translate into worldwide influence (Oprah and Will Smith, just to name two) makes folks clamor to be in the same room with this man.
“We are all put on this earth to do something,” he said in explaining his otherworldly skills in an interview with ro. “I can spot talent a mile away.”
Q recruited a long list of folks for Soul Bossa Nostra, including Usher, Ludacris, Akon, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Hudson, Mary J. Blige, T-Pain, Robin Thicke, LL Cool J, John Legend, Snoop Dogg, Wyclef Jean, Q-Tip, Talib Kweli, Three 6 Mafia, David Banner, Bebe Winans, Mervyn Warren, Jermaine Dupri, DJ Paul, and Scott Storch.
They all believe the ageless giant still has it. The man who created immortal classics with Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra and Michael Jackson does. He did it once with 1989 multi-Grammy winning Album of the Year Back on the Block and 1995’s platinum Q’s Jook Joint. And he doesn’t disappoint with Soul Bossa Nostra. –terry shropshire
