Just to name the album’s soloists is to conjure the sound of an epoch. With his finger uncannily on the pulse of jazz, soul, and pop, Jones brought out the full epic goosebump potential of “Walking in Space” from Hair, enlisting Valerie Simpson of Ashford & Simpson fame to bring it off. ( Smackwater Jack from 1971 had Phil Ramone behind the boards.) It was the first of Q’s efforts for A&M, commercially aimed but artistically genuine-a Creed Taylor production, as was Gula Matari one year later. On Walking in Space, Jones entered the fusion era on his own terms, embracing the electric jazz of the day but applying essentially unchanged principles: Pick great songs write deep, insightful, groove-rich arrangements get phenomenal talents to bring them to life. He did superb, forward-thinking work as a leader, on 1959’s The Birth of a Band! and other releases, his ensembles thick with stone jazz legends. Already by then his reputation-indispensable arranger for Count Basie, Sinatra, Ray Charles, and many more-was ironclad. When Quincy Jones made Walking in Space in 1969, he was just 10 years’ striking distance from producing Off the Wall and ushering Michael Jackson’s historic pop ascent.
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