Think About It. Quincy. Speaking of jook joints. Let’s. While revisiting the antebellum south in Laughing Place, my mind visited the shacks and outbuildings distant from the plantation residences I saw in 1940s Greenville, Mississippi. With name-change from slave to sharecropper, the field workers still needed some weekend relief from the same mind-numbing drudgery. Unwelcome in nearby town watering holes, the weary workers gathered to relax, drink, entertain and be entertained by each other. The sometimes unison field songs became the only slightly more stylized blues on Saturday. The call and response moved from the crop rows to the pulpit on Sunday with spirituals for a gospel accompaniment perhaps made in heaven.
Sometimes a structure provided place for singin’ and sinnin’ on a Saturday night. On unday it served the sinners to sing again, repent and be saved for another back-breaking week of servitude. I never read where Jesus said that the “church” was built of wood, or bricks and mortar for the matter. Let all the people say Amen.
Twenty years ago one of the world’s most talented people made modern American music the vehicle for a journey back into the essence of that early folk form. With 27 Grammy’s, this jazz trumpeter, conductor, arranger and composer, as well as record, television and film producer, has been probably the most respected entertainment personality in my lifetime.
Along the way, he worked with Ray Charles, Count Basie, Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday, and Paul Simon, to name a few. Oh, don’t forget, he produced the world’s best-selling album (Michael Jackson’s Thriller) and the all-star charity single “We Are the World.”
For me, topping his long list of artistically and popularly acknowledged successes is his collection of people and songs in a modern version of the old tradition. He elegantly captured the feeling of those gatherings with major musical artists, some living, some from the past, electronically woven into a party worth attending. Now nearly 20 years old, it includes Barry White, Marvin Gaye, Brandy, Phil Collins, Funkmaster Flex, Gloria Estefan and Bono. Want more? They’re there.
Princess Grace invited a 25 year-old bandleader to Monaco in 1958, meeting Frank Sinatra, leading to a 40-year friendship and perfect partnership in music. “Frank Sinatra took me to a whole new planet. I worked with him until he passed away in ’98. He left me his ring. I never take it off. Now, when I go to Sicily, I don’t need a passport. I just flash my ring.”
The singer called himself Francis. He called Jones “Q”. He titled today’s touted music “Q’s Juke Joint.” Jones is Quincy Delight Jones, Jr. Let’s just call the man Quincy. Think About It. Better yet, listen.