Our Tale of Two Cities by two manhattan kids: catherine & rachel

December 1, 2010

Quincy Jones may be 77, but his finesse as a musical producer has not diminished a whole lot since the glory days of the early 1980s when he produced Michael Jackson’s Thriller album.  

Soul Bossa Nostra is a compilation of fifteen of QJ’s biggest hits re-imagined and recorded by some pretty big names in music.  The all-star line-up that QJ assembled for this album is pretty legendary with a single track (“Secret Garden”) featuring Usher, Robin Thicke, Barry White, LL Cool J, Tyrese Gibson and Tevin Campbell.  Among the other artists featured on the album are Amy Winehouse, Snoop Dogg, and John Legend.  

Each of the participating artists selected a song from QJ’s large body of work. QJ produced each of the tracks on the album.  The resulting work is the first put out by QJ since 1995.  

While Soul Bossa Nostra includes a few definitive duds (Ironside and Hikky-Burr), several of the tracks are nothing short of awesome.  Musically complex with strong funk and soul undertones, the album’s shining moments occur during Snoop Dogg’s rendition of Get the Funk Out of My Face, Ludacris/Naturally 7/Rudy Currence’s Soul Bossa Nostra, and Secret Garden (performed by the six notable voices mentioned above).

Also noteworthy is Amy Winehouse’s re-make of Lesley Gore’s It’s My Party.  While much was made of AW’s slip into a seeming drug-fueled state of insanity in the years since she put out her epic (at least in the opinion of this author) Back to Black, Amy has remained below the radar for at least the last year and a half.  In fact, her involvement in QJ’s project marks the first new track put out by Amy in some time.  Originally approached by QJ to perform You Don’t Own Me, Amy expressed an interest in covering the sad girl at the party anthem instead.  Her rendition is uniquely Amy Winehouse.  I like it.  See what you think.

I have mixed feelings about T-Pain and Robin Thicke’s take on Michael Jackson’s PYT, which is heavily auto-tuned.  If nothing else, TP and RT’s rendition is rich, bold and interesting…certainly worth a listen, or two (just maybe not ten).

Jennifer Hudson’s version of You Put a Move on My Heart is pretty strong as well.

You can listen to Ludacris/Naturally 7/Rudy Currence perform Soul Bossa Nostra here:

-R