🎵 AotW AOTW: Quincy Jones - MELLOW MADNESS (SP-4526)

[Captain Bacardi]

Quincy Jones
MELLOW MADNESS
A&M SP-4526

Released 1975
Peaked at #1 on Jazz Charts (1975)

Format: Vinyl/8-Track/Cassette/CD/Quad

Produced by Quincy Jones for Quincy Jones Productions

Songs:

• 1. Is It Love That We're Missin' (George Johnson/Debbie Smith) - 3:43
  2. Paranoid (Joe Greene) - 2:55
  3. Mellow Madness (Quincy Jones/Tom Bahler/Paulette McWilliams/Al Ciner) - 3:27
  4. Beautiful Black Girl (Quincy Jones/Otis Smith) - 6:13
  5. Listen (What It Is) (George Johnson/Louis Johnson) - 4:16
  6. Just A Little Taste Of Me (George Johnson/Louis Johnson) - 3:27
  7. My Cherie Amour (Stevie Wonder/Henry Cosby/Sylvia May) - 5:25
  8. Tryin' To Find Out About You (George Johnson/Louis Johnson) - 3:00
  9. Cry Baby (Quincy Jones/Wah Wah Watson/Robert Bryant) - 4:19
  10. Bluesette (Norman Gimbel/Jean "Toots" Thielemans) - 7:00
  
  Arranged by Quincy Jones, Tom Bahler and Paul Riser

Musicians:
Quincy Jones - Trumpet, Keyboards
Guitars - Wah Wah Watson, George Johnson, Dennis Budimir (7), Toots Thilemans (10)
Bass - Louis Johnson, Max Bennett (7), Chuck Rainey (10)
Keyboards - Don Grusin, Dave Grusin, Jerry Peters, Mike Melvoin (7)
Trumpets - Bill Lamb, Chuck Findley, Tom Bahler
Trombones - Frank Rosolino, George Bohanon
Saxophones - Ernie Krivda, Sahib Shihab, Jerome Richardson
Flute - Hubert Laws (7)
Bass Harmonica - Tommy Morgan (6)
Drums - Harvey Mason, Grady Tate (10)
Conga & Percussion - Ralph MacDonald
Synthesizer Programming - Ian Underwood
Background Vocals - Tom Bahler, Paulette McWilliams, Jim Gilstrap, Joe Greene, Jesse Kirkland, Myrna Matthews, Carolyn Willis, Leon Ware, Quincy Jones, Minnie Riperton
Lead Vocals - George Johnson (1, 5, 6), Leon Ware (2, 7), Paulette McWilliams (3, 5, 7), Minnie Riperton (7), Wah Wah Watson (9), The Watts Prophets (Poetry Recitation on #4)

Recorded at Record Plant, Los Angeles, Westlake Audio, Los Angeles
Mastered at Kendun Recorders, Burbank California
Engineered by Phil Schier
Assisted by Joan DeCola

Art Direction by Roland Young
Album Design by Chuck Beeson
Photography by Norman Seeff



Capt. Bacardi

 

[A&Mguyfromwayback]

I wore this album out when it was released - I'm dying to hear it now, as I do remember it was very much 'of its time', in terms of songs, sounds, and especially the "poetry readings"! How dated would it sound today?.....

 

[Dave]

How dated would (this) sound today?

...Very!

Sorry, I just don't seem to really have "The Jones" for it, in this day & age...



Dave

 

[shaft]

Hi,
It's not Q's best effort but it's nice to listen to one of if not the first Brothers Johnson appearances. Bluesette is a very nice song. So you can enjoy this album in smaller bits and pieces. It does not really hang together like other Q albums do.
So 3 stars from me...
/Shaft

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I remember really liking the opening song but getting bored with the rest of the album.

The song "Beautiful Black Girl" is still amusing to me. Imagine if a white singer put out a song called "Beautiful White Girl," he'd get run out of the country! (Could have made a cool SNL sketch, they could have had Bill Murray singing BBG and just replaced "black" with "white".)

 

[Captain Bacardi]

With the exception of a couple of songs, this album doesn't sound all that dated at all. Quincy was clearly leaning more to the R&B side of things, but kept a definite jazz feel throughout. "Beautiful Black Girl" does sound rather odd today, and I'm not all that sure it was "in" back in the 70's. This album does take a while to get going, especially through the first side. But things really start cooking on "Just A Little Taste Of Me", which has very hip groove. "My Cherie Amour" is a light, airy tune, while Harvey Mason gets in some drum fills on the funky "Tryin' To Find Out About You". The highlight for me is "Bluesette", where Toots Thielemans doubles on guitar and whistling a solo through much of the song. And then there's Frank Rosolino's trombone work! I mean, come on, what else could anyone want? Sometimes the vocals clog things up on some songs, but overall I like this album. 3 & 1/2 stars.



Capt. Bacardi

 

[Dave]

This album seems to be more of a contemporary R&B then True Jazz, much like the upcoming Sounds...And Stuff Like That and The Dude are likely to be... Though, 'Upcoming', in the sense that they will probably also not be discussed here, too...

The only real trademarks of Quincy's "early sound" is found on "Bluesette", which despite the new "upgrades" of adding the studio singers, at least maintains his earlier approach with Ray Brown on Bass and Toots Thielemans' guitar and whistling...

Otherwise, it's real Modern Jazz, Soul, Rhythm & Blues and even a nod towards the beginnings of Hip-Hop and even Rock 'N' Roll, than anything resembling what Jones was doing in his beginning with A&M, and reminiscent of his Mercury years...



Dave