There are also DVDs of at least one television-recorded concert by the Quincy Jones big band during
this time. The band was formed to back a musical in Europe, which promptly closed. The band then
went on a tour to pay their freight home. They ended up stuck somewhere, perhaps in Eastern Europe.
Mercury's man in Europe, Brice Somers, paid what was needed to get the band out of the jam. This was
recounted in Quincy Jones' autobiography, but I don't recall the exact details. From then on, Quincy
and Brice were friends. Brice was an interesting guy, an inventor as well as a tremendous
behind-the-scenes music guy. He was instrumental in helping negotiate and the arranging logistics
for Mercury's 1962 recording trip to Moscow. Anyway, Quincy kept the band together for a couple of
years and made a bunch of good recordings. Members of the band went on to greater fame, and a bunch
of them continued to play on Quincy projects throughout the 60's.
By the way, after the big band as a formal organized unit broke up, Quincy turned back to arranging
and producing for Mercury, including successful sessions with Sarah Vaughn, Dinah Washington and
Brook Benton. He was then named a corporate VP, in charge of jazz and pop A&R. He then got more
involved in film scoring and other high-profile projects, and continued to put out a steady stream
of jazz-tinged pop albums. In the late 60's and early 70's, "Smackwater Jack" and "Walking In Space"
stand out.
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Lewis" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, April 17, 2015 12:45 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Some great jazz about to go out of print
> This is a CD release which Tom's post brings to mind. I knew of it in
> advance, because the TCB reps pitched it at the Allegro Conference the year
> it was released.
>
> http://www.jazzmessengers.com/en/15219/quincy-jones/srd-vol-1-lausanne-1960-quincy-jones-big-band
>
> The band, as Tom recommends, was truly excellent.
>
> David N. Lewis
> Hamilton, OH
>
> On Fri, Apr 17, 2015 at 12:15 PM, Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
>> Mosaic Records reports they are running low on the excellent Quincy Jones
>> big band set:
>> http://www.mosaicrecords.com/prodinfo.asp?number=237-MD-CD
>>
>> Some of this was recorded at Fine Recording, and I have to say I was blown
>> away by Ellen Fitton's tape transfer and Malcolm Addey's remastering. The
>> material never sounded better on a commercial release. Same goes for the
>> material recorded at Bell Sound and Barclay. The live stuff had only been
>> issued on LP and early-era Japanese CDs.
>>
>> I wish they had included some more of Quincy's jazz/pop albums for Mercury
>> in the early and mid-60's, but the idea was to encapsulate Quincy's awesome
>> but ill-fated big band formed in 1958, and to sweep in the Am-Par (ABC and
>> Impulse) recordings, which are in the same vein.
>>
>> Among the Mosaic sets I own, this one gets played a lot. I also really
>> like the Buddy Rich set that sold out quickly and the Dizzy Gillespie set
>> that sold out more recently. These all spotlight the work of Mercury's jazz
>> division in the 50s and 60s, also the Woody Herman 3-CD set. In all cases.
>> Ellen and Malcolm were able to get better sound results than previous
>> issues on CD or LP.
>>
>> -- Tom Fine
>>
>
>
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