# Quincy Jones’s walking in space: Video, Photos

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2023/04/05/quincy-joness-walking-in-space-video-photos/
- Published: 2023-04-05T00:02:26+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**My aunt and uncle had a few crucial LPs and tapes, including Quincy Jones’s 1969
A&M offering _Walking in Space_. I copied the album to my reel-to-reel tape player
and listened to it over and over and over and over. I suppose I was 11 or 12.**

This is big band music in a friendly Count Basie vein, but with some decided oddities.
The whole first side is a suite of two themes from the hit musical _Hair._ To this
day, I don’t know these melodies except from Quincy’s swinging re-toolings. Indeed,
I went to the revival of _Hair_ on Broadway a few years ago mainly because I figured
I owed it to the composers to learn something of the source material. (The show 
didn’t make much of an impression; I mostly remember that the very great Bernard
Purdie was on drums in the pit. I hope he got paid).

Although there is a hint of backbeat and a few soulful vocals (notably Valerie Simpson
singing the sexy lyric “My body” on the title track), another somewhat odd thing
about the LP is how “jazz” it is. It’s 1969, when they were still closer to Basie
than fusion. The soloists have a lot of space and Grady Tate and Ray Brown are mostly
swinging out. To confuse the narrative further, at least three of the jazz soloists
would go on to have bigger careers in smooth jazz or fusion: Bob James, Hubert Laws,
and Eric Gale. They all sound good in this context, holding their own next to Freddie
Hubbard, Roland Kirk, Jerome Richardson, and Jimmy Cleveland. Bob James in particular
is heavily featured on Rhodes; James also contributes an arrangement of Johnny Mandel’s“
I Never Told You.”

![Quincy Jones Fast Facts | CNN](https://i0.wp.com/media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/
prod/180207120704-quincy-jones.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

I loved the cover and the way the album sounded. Only later did I understand that
photographer Pete Turner and engineer Rudy Van Gelder were famous, and at that moment
they were under the direction of a man with a particular vision: Creed Taylor, perhaps
the ultimate producer of “bachelor pad” jazz. Taylor cut an important swath through
Impulse!, Verve, A&M, and finally ended up with his own imprint, CTI.

While Quincy Jones only did one more album with Creed Taylor (_Gula Matari_), this
was the first time Bob James and Creed Taylor were in a studio together, a pairing
that would power several bestselling ‘70s CTI releases.

James recalled: Quincy introduced me to Creed Taylor when he had me write a couple
of arrangements for his album, _Walking in Space_ (A&M, 1969). Working with Quincy
on the album proved to be my audition, of sorts, with Creed Taylor. It gave Creed
a chance to see my arrangements, and that ultimately led to my working with CTI.

Quincy Jones himself said the album was a chance to get off the Hollywood studio
grind for a moment: So Creed Taylor and A&M came up and they just said, “How about
doing a record?” And at that time I said, “Record -great!” And I didn’t care about
it. Wasn’t even thinking about it. And we came in here and we did _Walking In Space_.
I just wanted to see, get off on hearing the rhythm section groove with my favorite
musicians. So it was just like a breath of fresh air to do that record.

_Walking in Space_ rarely turns up in the annals of big band discussion, probably
because the arrangements are basic and to the point. There’s plenty of relaxed focus
on feeling groovy, but not a whole lot of nerdy detail. Van Gelder applies far more
reverb than he did for Blue Note under Alfred Lion, and the brass and flute flow
smokily out of the hi-fi. The trombones are especially gorgeous. (It surely doesn’t
hurt that J.J. Johnson and Kai Winding are in the section.)

The first side is a _mood_ — full of serious improvised solos it may be, but still,
a _mood_: _Hair_ seen by the jazz cats. The second side offers four diverse character
sketches.

Benny Golson’s “Killer Joe” gets a wonderful treatment. Ray Brown himself said this
was one of his best tracks, for his walking bass line on the rather restrictive 
chord progression is wildly creative. Freddie Hubbard blows like an angel and the
vocal chorus is perfect.

![Quincy Jones refuses to talk after jaw-dropping revelations | Page Six](https://
i0.wp.com/pagesix.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/02/quincy-jones.jpg?w=640&
ssl=1)

Toots Thielemans plays magical harmonica for Mandel’s “I Never Told You.” Dramatic
and powerful. Again, this was arranged by Bob James, and it is the only piece on
the album with conventional “flashy” big band harmony.

Most of the album has elegant Grady Tate, but Bernard Purdie steps in to power two
superb gospel numbers, “Love and Peace” (originally by the Crusaders) and “Oh Happy
Day” (originally by the Edwin Hawkins Singers). On “Oh Happy Day” Chuck Rainey supplies
utterly fabulous electric bass. That’s two for two: Brown on “Killer Joe” and Rainey
on “Oh Happy Day.”

The preaching tenor sax on “Love and Peace” is a good blindfold test: it’s Hubert
Laws. This piece has Eric Gale at his best as well.

I started another paragraph of superlatives, but probably enough is enough. It’s
impossible for me to be objective about this album, for it is just too important
to my very being. Very happy to have had this perfect introduction to some of the
folkways and mores at such a young age. Oh Happy Day to Quincy Jones on his 90th
birthday!

![](https://i0.wp.com/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456%2Cc_limit%2Cf_auto%2Cq_auto%
3Agood%2Cfl_progressive%3Asteep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%
2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F86c805cb-a7cd-4dc6-9076-cf8aed4c2a4a_640x640.jpeg?resize=640%
2C640&ssl=1)

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