Vinyl - QUINCY JONES - Birth Of A Band

A time when Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk were triumphant, when the merits of Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor and Eric Dolphy were hotly debated, where we were about to welcome the sensational entry of Archie Shepp, who was already performing with the New York Contemporary Five, and the mysterious figure who, in Sweden, had just (in January) recorded "My Name Is Albert Ayler" - when you think back to that environment, it's clear that to add soul music, funk, rock, disco, rap and many up-to-date variants of rhythm and blues to his palette, to contribute as a producer to the irresistible rise of Michael Jackson and the "We Are The World" movement, and to win 27 Grammy Awards in the course of his career, could only discredit him in the eyes of the guardians of the temple, who have always taken a dim view of success that's too dazzling. Yet Quincy Jones' success was not without talent, as evidenced by the dazzling "Birth Of A Band" and the suave "Big Band Bossa Nova".

Text by Alain Gerber