As we all know Quincy Jones passed away earlier this month. Many regard him to be one of the best music producers of all time. No doubt he left an indelible mark on black music going all the way back to the 50s/60's. He produced/composed/arranged for a variety of jazz, R&B and soul artists - Ray Charles, Little Richard, Aretha Franklin, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Donny Hathaway, Dinah Washington the list goes on. But for me the pinnacle of his work came with Michael Jackson - he produced the albums 'Off the Wall', 'Thriller' & 'Bad' which have sold a combined 125 million copies to date. Just insane. I'm not going to include any MJ tracks in this playlist but will focus on some other artists he produced for.
First up is jazz/r&b artist George Benson. QJ produced his 1980 album Give Me the Night which went multi platinum. This was one of the first releases on his newly formed record label, Qwest. The big singles were the title track and "Love X Love" but this was also released as a single
"What's On Your Mind"
QJ produced 4 albums for Brothers Johnson from 1976-1980. This is the lead track from the first album, Look Out For #1.
"Ill Be Good to You"
QJ produced the debut album for James Ingram in 1983. It contained this catchy duet with Michael McDonald
"Yah Mo B There"
In 1998 Canadian singer Tamia released her debut LP on Qwest Records. Quincy signed her after hearing her sing at a benefit concert. He only produced one song for her debut album, the Rod Temperton penned "You Put a Move on My Heart"