Monday, June 9, 2025: Quincy Jones - Soul Bossa Nova

In 1962, Quincy Jones was already a respected jazz arranger and conductor, having worked with Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, and Frank Sinatra. His album Big Band Bossa Nova, and specifically this tune Soul Bossa Nova, capitalized on the early 1960s American fascination with Latin rhythms, especially the Brazilian bossa nova wave led by artists like João Gilberto and Antônio Carlos Jobim.

It also showcased Jones' skill at fusing American jazz with international rhythms.

It's catchy, innovated, instantly recognizable, and will be the song in my head as I walk into work this Monday morning.

I mean, it's either this, or some kind of death-march durge.  And I much more prefer this.  

Yeah, baby, YEAH! 

Saturday, December 24, 2011: Quincy Jones featuring the All Star Chorus - Handel's Hallelujah! Chorus

And when Quincy Jones says "All Star", you know he don't get anything but the brightest of the bright stars:

Vanessa Bell Armstrong, Patti Austin, Bernie K., Daryl Coley, Commissioned, Andrae Crouch, Sandra Crouch, Clifton Davis, Charles S. Dutton, Kim Fields, Larnelle Harris, Edwin Hawkins, Tramaine Hawkins, Linda Hopkins, Al Jarreau, Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight, Lizz Lee, Dawnn Lewis, Babbie Mason, Johnny Mathis, Marilyn McCoo, Mike E., Stephanie Mills, Jeffrey Osborne, David Pack, Phylicia Rashād, Joe Sample, Richard Smallwood, Sounds of Blackness, Take 6, Darryl Tookes, Mervyn Warren, Thomas Whitfield, Vanessa Williams and Chris Willis. Arranged and conducted by Quincy Jones.

Off of Handel's Messiah: A Soulful Celebration, may this coolest of cool tracks take you into a most joyous Christmas day.

Have yourself a very Merry Christmas, gentle reader.

And God bless us, every one.