It beggars belief that today will make it two years since Michael Jackson passed. It’s no less shocking even after all this time.
Once in a while I’ll get a hankering to listen to one of the three classic albums he made with
Quincy Jones between the late 1970s and late '80s. Recently it was the turn of
Bad: an album I’ve dubbed in the past as Michael’s best ‘pop’ album. And it is unabashedly pop.
Having shown signs on
Thriller of moving away from the pure funk/soul rhythms of
Off the Wall, with
Bad Jackson and Jones threw themselves wholeheartedly into the more commercial, synthesised sounds that characterised that particular decade.
There was a noticeable absence of the sweet soul contributions from Brit maestro
Rod Temperton with whom Quincy and Michael had made such beautiful music before. No doubt many saw this as selling out to a degree but if they were going to soften their sound, my goodness,
Bad was the way to go about it.
Quincy Jones’ latest studio album Q: Soul Bossa Nostra, Jones’ first release in 15 years, is just out on Qwest / Interscope. This LP is a collection of 15 songs, taken from Quincy's rich production repertoire, and are reinterpreted by the current household names of jazz, R&B and pop. Q: Soul Bossa Nostra, a wink to Quincy Jones’ 1962 Soul Bossa Nova album, follows on the soundprint of the 1995 Q’s Jook Joint album, which held in its waves a star-packed line up and earned seven Grammy nominations.
In a similar vein, this album features a bewildering list of singers, musicians and producers who revisit songs Quincy Jones’ Midas touch had turned into classics. Here is a Quincy Jones production that features Usher, Ludacris, Akon, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Hudson, Mary J. Blige, T-Pain, Robin Thicke, LL Cool J, John Legend, Snoop Dogg, Wyclef Jean, Q-Tip, Talib Kweli, Three 6 Mafia, David Banner, Bebe Winans, Mervyn Warren, Jermaine Dupri, DJ Paul and Scott Storch.