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Quincy Jones | Sounds … and Stuff Like That! – [A&M Records, 1978]

Quincy Jones - Sounds ... and Stuff Like That!

After owning this on vinyl for almost 30 years, I finally got it on CD. The record still played well but it was beginning to show its age. Then there’s the fact that they no longer make cars with tape players, apparently, and I need something to play in the new car I’m getting next month.

But most of all, I’m just bored beyond endurance with the majority of music coming out these days and have decided to spend my money going into the archives and revamping my record collection.

I am completely unabashed about my adoration for Quincy Jones. To me he is literally the best producer, conductor and arranger of my generation and I very much doubt I’ll see anything to equal him in my lifetime. From the various magazine interviews and TV appearances of him I’ve seen, he seems like a pretty cool dude too.

This is the album that introduced to Q. I was 15 going on 16 and up until that point, the pinnacle of my musical pleasures had been provided by disco queens and old-school reggae dons. I mention no names. And then one day, my mother sent me out for some milk and I stopped by the house of this older guy I was friends with at the time. He told me he’d just bought a new album and asked me if I wanted to hear something special. I said sure, he put the record on and time just seemd to stand still. I stood there, transfixed, eyes wide open and mouth agape. And this was just to the first strains of the first song on the album, the title track, “Stuff Like That.”

I literally didn’t move a muscle until my friend had played the entire first side of the album and the first two songs of the second side. I was entranced. I had never heard anything like it. The clarity of the music (My friend had a pretty decent sound system. Sure it was 1978 but still), the lush orchestration that while complex was never overbearing, the solos… —Olukayode Balogun (England)

..:: Source: Amazon.com ::..