The Quintessence

Having enjoyed some Quincy Jones's '50s and '60s big band arrangements for the likes of Dinah Washington and Frank Sinatra, I thought it just as well to check out an example of the the music released under his own name. Here, with his orchestra in 1961, is his sole release on the Impulse! label The Quintessence which I bought second-hand last year on CD.

The orchestra sound fantastic, as one might expect when it featured such notable players as Freddie Hubbard, Clark Terry, Thad Jones, Curtis Fuller and Oliver Nelson, the last-named then on the verge of beginning his own career as a composer/conductor/arranger. Three of the tracks are Jones originals, with another two by his assistant, trombonist Billy Byers. The covers include the Benny Golson number 'Little Karen', and a high-octane version of Thelonious Monk's 'Straight, No Chaser'.

Its eight tracks barely extending to half an hour, this is a short album, but an impeccably sharp one. The sleeve notes, courtesy of Lennie Hayton and Lena Horne, are unusually amusing for a record of this vintage, which is a bonus.

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