Maps of Music

This Is How I Feel About Jazz (1956)

Where the lyrics of This Is How I Feel About Jazz take you, and where it was really made.

The 1992 CD cover carries the Impulse! logo, yet this 1957 album was never released on Impulse!

Key places

Where the album tracks were recorded (1956)

Recording site Record Plant Studios — The original album tracks were recorded at Beltone Recording Studios in New York City in September 1956. The map point is set at city-centre level, not on the studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• This Is How I Feel About Jazz: a 1957 album by American musician Quincy Jones
• His first full-length album as a bandleader
• His recording debut came with the 1955 split album Jazz Abroad
• Three recording sessions in September 1956, each with a different line-up
• Line-ups range from a nonet to a fifteen-piece big band
• Musicians include Charles Mingus, Art Farmer, Phil Woods, Lucky Thompson, Hank Jones, Paul Chambers, Milt Jackson, Art Pepper, Zoot Sims, and Herbie Mann
• The 1992 CD bonus tracks come from the album Go West, Man!

Background

• Jones was 23 years old when the album was made
• Before this, he worked as musical director and trumpeter in Dizzy Gillespie's big band
• Jones's own band drew on Gillespie-band colleagues such as Frank Rehak, Ernie Royal, Jimmy Cleveland, Charlie Persip, Lucky Thompson and Phil Woods
• The title refers to Jones's statement in a Newport Jazz Festival discussion on the future of jazz
• Charles Mingus had one of his last sideman appearances here, before he led his own bands

Recording

• The original tracks were recorded by Irv Greenbaum at Beltone Recording Studios, New York City
• Jones arranged and conducted the sessions and did not play an instrument on them
• 14 September 1956: Evening in Paris and Sermonette
• 19 September 1956: A Sleepin' Bee and Boo's Blues
• 29 September 1956: Walkin' and Stockholm Sweetnin'
• Creed Taylor produced the original album; ABC-Paramount released it
• The six added tracks from February 1957 were produced by Jones but not arranged by him

Cover

• The 1992 CD cover is similar to the original but carries the Impulse! logo

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · de.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Career

• Born March 14, 1933 in Chicago; died November 3, 2024 in Los Angeles at age 91.
• American record producer, musician and composer; a career spanning seven decades.
• Received 28 Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award and a Tony Award; seven Academy Award nominations.
• Began as a jazz arranger and conductor in the 1950s, touring with Lionel Hampton and Dizzy Gillespie.
• Produced all four million-selling singles for Lesley Gore in the early-to-mid 1960s, including "It's My Party".
• Arranged and conducted for Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and others.
• Scored The Pawnbroker, In the Heat of the Night, The Italian Job and The Color Purple.
• Produced Michael Jackson's Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad.
• Produced and conducted "We Are the World" (1985) to raise famine relief for Ethiopia.
• Founded Qwest Productions and later Qwest TV, a jazz subscription video service.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

Reappraisal

• AllMusic critic Scott Yanow gave the debut the top score
• Yanow praised the arrangements, the solo lineup of Lucky Thompson, Phil Woods and Art Farmer, and the highlights Stockholm Sweetnin', Walkin' and Sermonette
• Brian Priestley in Rough Guide Jazz called the album a masterpiece
• Priestley singled out the airy, dynamic arrangements of Walkin' and Sermonette, and named Art Farmer and Lucky Thompson as the key soloists
• Richard Cook and Brian Morton in The Penguin Guide to Jazz gave the album the top rating
• They said it is the one work among the arranger's few jazz albums that deserves a place in a full jazz collection
• They also said it shows that Jones, at 23, was already a master at gathering musicians and drawing out their best
• Cook and Morton praised the remastering of the CD reissue by Michael Cuscuna

Sources: de.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The album title refers to Jones's Newport Jazz Festival remark on the future of jazz, which argued for natural growth over forced development.
• Charles Mingus had one of his last sideman appearances here, before he worked with bands of his own.
• Walkin' runs nearly eleven minutes and uses 15 musicians, but Jones broke the sound into smaller groups to avoid a heavy big-band manner.
• The 1957 album was never released on Impulse!, although the 1992 GRP/MCA CD cover carries the Impulse! logo.
• Six added CD tracks come from a February 1957 Los Angeles session that was first issued on Go West, Man!

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · de.wikipedia.org

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