{"id":41449,"date":"2009-04-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-04-07T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/back-on-the-block\/"},"modified":"2009-04-07T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-04-07T00:00:00","slug":"back-on-the-block","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/back-on-the-block\/","title":{"rendered":"Back On The Block"},"content":{"rendered":"

Quincy Jones is a person I have admired for a long time.\u00a0 I grew up listening to his music, sometimes not even knowing it was his.\u00a0 From his trumpeting and arranging for Lionel Hampton, his penning of the Cosby Show theme song, his big band arrangements for the Count Basie Orchestra with Frank Sinatra (It Might As Well Be Spring) <\/i>and his production of Michael Jackson\u2019s Thriller, <\/i>Jones\u2019 music has rarely stopped being brilliant.\u00a0 Jones\u2019 1989 album Back On The Block <\/i>shows a reflective Quincy in transition.\u00a0 It is a valiant attempt to connect the past with the future, as shown by its diverse cast of musicians such as Ice-T, Miles Davis, Chaka Khan, Ella Fitzgerald and Herbie Hancock.\u00a0 The first nine songs of the album are vibrant masterpieces of 1980\u2019s synthesizer-based pop, rap and jazz.\u00a0 The last five are unlistenable, boring compositions, completely overstepping the timeless nature of the first part.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Let us start with the good parts!\u00a0 After a short prologue, the album starts with the amazing African-infused rap song \u201cBack On The Block,\u201d mixing rappers Ice-T, Melle Mel, Big Daddy Kane and Kool Moe Dee with musicians such as Quincy, Rod Temperton (both on multiple instruments) and jazz keyboardist Joe Zawinul (Weather Report).\u00a0 The song \u201cBack On The Block\u201d is both musically and socially relevant, showing the (then) contemporary African-American music as a continuation of jazz and blues and, ultimately, the \u201cAfrican griot <\/i>storyteller,\u201d as Jones elaborates in the liner notes (emphasis in the original).\u00a0\u00a0 Jones\u2019 inclusion of controversial rapper Ice-T on the first verse also has political and artistic implications.\u00a0 As Ice-T states towards the end of his rap, \u201cHe (Jones) told me \u2018Ice, keep doin\u2019 what you\u2019re doin\u2019, man \/ Don\u2019t give a damn the squares don\u2019t understand \/ You let them tell you what to say and what to write \/ You\u2019re whole career\u2019ll be over by tomorrow night.\u201d<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Jones stays true to his vision throughout the next seven songs, which include sweet love songs, lush vocal arrangements, a poignant mix of famous jazz musicians and famous rappers (\u201cJazz Corner Of The World\u201d) and an even more synth-heavy version of Weather Report\u2019s original fusion hit \u201cBirdland.\u201d\u00a0 Creeping into this vast, relevant array of musical styles and dedications to the African tradition is a beautiful duet between Chaka Khan and Ray Charles entitled \u201cI\u2019ll Be Good To You.\u201d\u00a0 Everything in \u201cI\u2019ll Be Good To You\u201d indicates that it is a product of the \u201880s, from the electronic drum sound to the pop-infused vocally layered chorus. Nonetheless, the melody is so infectious and Charles\u2019 and Khan\u2019s lead vocals are so sincere that the song transcends its era to be enduringly relevant and moving.\u00a0 And unlike many male-female love duets (dare I say, \u201cI Got You Babe\u201d), the lyrics are surprisingly heartfelt.\u00a0 Written by George Johnson, Louis Johnson and Sonora Sam, Charles and Khan sing, \u201cThe way we stand and the way we lie \/ The way we love and the way we cry \/ Of all these things there lies a tie \/ Makes me feel that it\u2019s worth a try.\u201d\u00a0 For me, the greatest love lyrics reflect the honest struggle of relationships, and these lyrics remain both truthful and hopeful.\u00a0 Singing these, Charles and Khan sound like a match made in musical heaven.\u00a0 <\/span><\/o:p><\/p>\n

Now to the bad parts: the last five songs of the album.\u00a0 From the immensely boorish Brazilian \u201cSetembro\u201d to the naively utopian \u201cTomorrow (Better You, Better Me),\u201d featuring the then twelve-year-old Tevin Campbell singing \u201cI hope tomorrow will bring \/ Better you and better me,\u201d the latter third of Back On The Block <\/i>turns to tired clich\u00e9s and overly emotional mush.\u00a0 At least if the album ended with \u201cBirdland,\u201d my only complaint would have been that it was too short.\u00a0 The last song on the album, \u201cThe Secret Garden,\u201d (preceded by an utterly useless \u201cPrelude To The Garden\u201d) is the icing on this garbage cake.\u00a0 In sharp contrast to \u201cI\u2019ll Be Good To You,\u201d \u201cThe Secret Garden\u201d is a ridiculously sentimental attempt to contemporize tear-jerking, R&B love-making ballads.\u00a0 Containing over-the-top vocals set to flamboyantly layered keyboards and heavily-echoed drums, singers Barry White, El DeBarge, James Ingram and Al B. Sure sing such clich\u00e9-ridden lyrics as \u201cHere in the garden where temptation feels so right \/ Passion can make you fall for what you feel\u201d and \u201cI can keep you satisfied \/ Come on, come on, come one \/ All night.\u201d\u00a0 By the end, I found myself thinking, what happened to this album?\u00a0 <\/i>It was a strange experience.\u00a0 Unlike my usual listening experiences, I began ] absolutely loving this album and ended up hating it.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Despite the mediocre rating for Back On The Block<\/i>, the first nine songs are well worth the purchase.\u00a0 Clear, concise, and relevant, those songs substantially showcase Quincy\u2019s Jones\u2019 brilliance.\u00a0 The last five exemplify him running out of good ideas.\u00a0 In the liner notes, Jones states, \u201cBack On The Block <\/i>is music to take to the streets, to make love to, to reflect upon, to find hope in, get lost in and party to\u2026\u201d This is absolutely true.\u00a0 Unfortunately, it also includes music to cringe to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":29834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7922],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-41449","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-quincy-jones","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41449"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}