In honour of both the passing of musical legend, Quincy Jones, and the departure of our Comms Officer, Beka, for new creative ventures.

Our first track is the effervescent 'Soul Bossa Nova':

It’s not just the brilliant writing and arranging, it’s the astonishingly tight performance of this original recording, a little slower than you usually hear it – more soul, less dash. But then, when you’ve asked Lalo Schifrin to be the pianist and Rahsaan Roland Kirk the flute solo ... also a strong presence of the cuica, one of our Director’s favourite percussion instruments. And listen to that brass playing – and those guys aren’t even mentioned on the album liner notes!

The following excerpt is taken from Quincy Jones: His brilliance explained in 10 songs:

"Another example of how Jones's skill as an arranger could completely change a song.

[The song] was written by Sir Noël Coward for the 1932 revue Words and Music. In the original, it was sung by four different women, each expressing their love for an unnamed film star (rumoured to be Douglas Fairbanks Jr) as they wait in line to see one of his films.

It's funny and quirky and clever - but when Dinah Washington covered the song in 1961, Jones slowed it down and switched the time signature from 4/4 to 6/8, allowing the singer to prowl through the lyrics with a newfound carnality."

Figured out the song yet? It's the fantastic 'Mad About The Boy':

You’ve basically seen the movie after watching this clip – an old fashioned cops, robbers and the Mafia caper. The score (as with over 30 other movies) is by Quincy Jones, something that’s almost impossible to identify by ear alone, because of his amazing skill and versatility. There are musicians who are distinctively themselves, and you can hear that as soon as a track starts. Not this guy... Here's the 'Self Preservation Society' from 'The Italian Job':

In the late sixties and early seventies, this was THE Christmas present for would be musicians – they were mostly sold as children’s toys, in hundreds of thousands. It may well have been the first mass market, compact and hand held synthesiser. As you can hear on the following clip the sound wasn’t … beautiful. But still... It was what it was, as they say:

A little bonus video for retro lovers... 
We now think of synthesisers being mostly keyboard based, so here’s saxophone genius Michael Brecker (15 Grammys) showing us a thing or two. We’re not sure how old this clip is, though Michael died in 2007 and he began using the EWI in the early 1980s: