In 2008, producer Quincy Jones reached the blessed age of seventy-five. Enough reason to go all out during the Montreux Jazz Festival with a birthday party in which Jones' complete discography is reviewed. A band led by Greg Phillinganes supplemented by The Swiss Army Big Band provides the accompaniment of about thirty artists who have worked with Jones over the years and were also booked at the
… Montreux Jazz Festival that year. The concert opens with the theme of The Good, The Bad And The Ugly and then returns to the 1950s, when Jones' career as an orchestra leader and arranger began. The solid big band jazz, with or without vocals from Patti Austin, Freda Payne, Al Jarreau, Petula Clark, Nana Mouskouri, Mick Hucknall and Chala Khan, among others, gradually turns into soul and funk to end with Stuff Like That, a rousing finale in which all artists come on stage again en masse. Not only Jones has the time of his life, but the performers also radiate the fun. (AD)more
