Quincy Jones ‎– Body Heat

At the time, Body Heat was a breathtaking leap for Quincy Jones, right into the very heart of mainstream commercial soul – and it turned out to be very lucrative, rising to number six on the pop album charts. Jazz per se has been left far behind but the same musical sensibility, the same brilliant production skills, and the same knack for what will appeal to a wider audience are still at work, and the result is a surprisingly pleasing album. Amazingly, Jones still draws a constellation of jazz stars into his studio bands (Herbie Hancock, Frank Rosolino, Hubert Laws, Jerome Richardson, Grady Tate, Bob James), plus soul names like Billy Preston, Bernard Purdie and the soon-to-be-ubiquitous guitarist Wah Wah Watson.

Love, Q features some of producer/composer/arranger/trumpeter and music legend Quincy Jones' best-known love songs. Spanning a nice swath of time from the '70s through the '90s, the collection focuses on Jones' R&B-oriented material. Included here are such stellar tunes as the steamy Leon Ware/Bruce Fisher number "Body Heat," Patti Austin's lyrical "Love Me By Name," and the Tevin Campbell feature "Everything." While this isn't the definitive Jones compilation, or even as complete a picture as Hip-O's previous Jones package, Ultimate Collection, it is still nice to have all these "quiet storm"-ready tracks in one place.

I've been a Quincy Jones fan for three decades now but I watched a BBC4 two-part, two-hour documentary on the living legend the other day and was amazed at how little I actually knew about him (for example: no one currently alive has won more Grammys than he has) and was similarly amazed at the sheer size of his body of work. ~ Amazon Customer's Review