Mark Kerber

The multi-talented Quincy Jones has excelled at idiomatic combinations in his albums since the '60s, when his mix-and-match soundtracks for television and films alerted everyone that he'd switched from a pure jazz mode to a populist trend. Q's Jook Joint blends the latest in hip-hop-flavored productions with sleek urban ballads, vintage standards, and derivative pieces; everything's superbly crafted, though few songs are as exciting in their performance or daring in their conception as past Jones epics like Gula Matari or the score from Roots…
Ron Wynn, All Music Guide.

Q's Jook Joint blends the latest in hip-hop-flavored productions with sleek urban ballads, vintage standards, and derivative pieces; everything's superbly crafted, though few songs are as exciting in their performance or daring in their conception as past Jones epics like Gula Matari or the score from Roots. Still, you can't fault Jones for his choice of musical collaborators: everyone from newcomer Tamia to longtime stars like Ray Charles, rappers, instrumentalists, male and female vocalists, percussionists, and toasters. The CD really conveys the seamless quality one gets from attending a juke joint, though it lacks the dirt-floor grit or blues fervor of traditional Southern and chitlin circuit hangouts. But no one's more knowledgeable about the spectrum of African-American music, nor better able to communicate it via disc, than Quincy Jones.

In 1988, Roberta Flack made a comeback after a long hiatus away from the recording studios with a new album of songs in the adult contemporary vein. Using a vast array of top session musicians whose names would easily fill a page and crowd out liner notes, "Oasis" was released to public indifference, even though the title track did hit #1 on the R & B charts.

Q's Jook Joint is an album by Quincy Jones, released on November 7, 1995 through Qwest Records. This was Jones' first studio album in six years, preceded by Back on the Block in 1989 and followed by From Q With Love in 1999. Q's Jook Joint won the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical in 1997.