Quincy Delight Jones Jr. is known to most people as the producer of some of the best-selling albums in the record-books, and particularly those by Michael Jackson. But Quincy’s talents as a producer were only able to bloom because he is an immense musician. For close to seventy years, the man has been writing, playing, producing and recording music. Born in Chicago and raised in Seattle, Quincy befriended Ray Charles in the Forties and went to study at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. As a trumpeter in the Fifties, Quincy acquired immense experience as an arranger for a great number of orchestras and musicians. The five years (1957-1962) illustrated in this album represent the peak of Quincy’s art as an arranger and bandleader. He toured the world and settled in Paris for a time, where he became Artistic Director for the label of Eddie Barclay. And then in the Sixties he returned to America to become Music Director of the U.S. label Mercury. He met Michael Jackson in 1978 on the set of The Wiz, which was produced by Motown. A year later, Quincy was the producer of Michael Jackson’s album Off the Wall, marking the beginning of a series of immense hits in every musical domain.
The history of music shows us that different kinds and forms follow each other. And that the latest trend overshadows the one that came before it. Today it's difficult to say exactly which trend dominates, as there are so many music currents that overlap and intersect. Mainstream exists no longer. Yet one thing is certain: each music form is built on the music that precedes it. There would be no jazz without classical music, no rock without blues, no rock without jazz, no rap without soul music, no sampling without the riffs of either soul or rock… and therefore, inside each genre you find different chapters in the history of music. And that is why it is so important to understand their origins: they shed the light that is necessary for an understanding of the music born every day.
The richness of jazz lies at the origin of so much music today that it is essential to discover this creative wealth. The Essential Works of Masters of Jazz bring to light those 20th century creations that still exert an influence on the majority of musicians today — whether they are aware of it or not.
The Essential Works of Masters of Jazz gather the fundamental creations of the music of today.