IT SEEMS like your usual boring midweek, nothing really interesting. The hot topic both on social and mainstream media still is the novel coronavirus outbreak resulting in almost everyone wearing face masks and debating on which is the proper one to wear or how to wear it properly.
With every other person wearing some kind of mask I feel safe already now that everyone is filtered.
Meanwhile everyone on social media has suddenly become an expert on the virus courtesy of Google sans the proper medical degree.
I do find it stupid and in poor taste people who post unfunny racist jokes and comments about the novel coronavirus epidemic likewise using it to further their hate agenda against President Rodrigo Duterte.
So much for the unpleasantness. We segue to the arts, music in particular, the kind that leaves the trendy Frappuccino-infused social-climbing millennials staring in utter confusion.
Excerpts from that online free encyclopedia a.k.a. the internet:
Q’s Jook Joint is an album by Quincy Jones that was released by Qwest Records. The album reached No. 1 on the Billboard jazz albums chart on December 30, 1995. Q’s Jook Joint won the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical in 1997.
And before the trendy Frappuccino-infused social-climbing millennials get lost in translation: Quincy Delight Jones Jr. is an American record producer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, composer, arranger, and film and television producer. His career spans over 60 years in the entertainment industry with a record 80 Grammy Award nominations, 28 Grammys, and a Grammy Legend Award in 1992.
Jones came to prominence in the 1950s as a jazz arranger and conductor, before moving on to work in pop music and film scores.
Here’s more about Quincy Jones’s Grammy Award winning album Q’s Jook Joint:
From a www.allmusic.com review by Ron Wynn:
The multi-talented Quincy Jones has excelled at idiomatic combinations in his albums since the ’60s, when his mix-and-match soundtracks for television and films alerted everyone that he’d switched from a pure jazz mode to a populist trend. Q’s Jook Joint blends the latest in hip-hop-flavored productions with sleek urban ballads, vintage standards, and derivative pieces; everything’s superbly crafted, though few songs are as exciting in their performance or daring in their conception as past Jones epics like Gula Matari or the score from Roots. Still, you can’t fault Jones for his choice of musical collaborators: everyone from newcomer Tamia to longtime stars like Ray Charles, rappers, instrumentalists, male and female vocalists, percussionists, and toasters. The CD really conveys the seamless quality one gets from attending a juke joint, though it lacks the dirt-floor grit or blues fervor of traditional Southern and chitlin circuit hangouts. But no one’s more knowledgeable about the spectrum of African-American music, nor better able to communicate it via disc, than Quincy Jones.
Indeed the album is pure delight to listen to; it’s an eclectic mix of soulful ballads, foot stomping R&B grooves, jazz riffs and hip hop harmonies.
From an article in www.udiscovermusic.com:
Q’s Jook Joint took its bow with a string of guest appearances and some well-chosen remakes of songs from Quincy’s past. The R&B top 20 hit from the set was ‘You Put A Move On My Heart,’ first recorded by British soul singer Mica Paris.
The new version featured vocals by Canadian singer Tamia, who, in keeping with Jones’ policy of giving young talent a break, took her place among a cast list of household names. These included the formidable trio of Stevie Wonder, Bono and Ray Charles, who all featured on an update of the much-covered 1946 hit by jump-jive hero Louis Jordan, ‘Let The Good Times Roll.’ From the same era came a new interpretation of Duke Ellington‘s ‘Do Nothin’ Till You Hear From Me,’ with lead vocals by Phil Collins.
Quincy visited his own past to redo the hit he produced for the Brothers Johnson, ‘Stomp!,’ now spotlighting Chaka Khan, Charlie Wilson of the Gap Band, Shaquille O’Neal and others, as well as the cast of the hit musical of the same name. Jones’ own 1978 hit ‘Stuff Like That’ brought its original vocalist, Khan, back to the mic along with Charles, Wilson, Brandy and Ashford & Simpson. Brandy was also featured with Heavy D on a version of Jackson’s hit, another vintage Quincy/Rod collaboration, Michael Jackson’s ‘Rock With You.’
With an impressive guest list performing it’s never a dull moment listening to Q’s Jook Joint without a doubt a must have for the discerning music aficionado’s collection. (brotherlouie16@gmail.com/PN)
