Search - Quincy Jones :: Walking in Space

Get it for the title song.

Pinner Blinn | Arlington, MA USA | 11/02/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I had this record on vinyl years ago, and I bought the CD, principally to get the title song which can only be had by getting the CD. The song "Walking in Space" is a 12-minute tour de force, where the all-star orchestra delivers a succession of swinging solos which shake loose the glossy trappings of Quincy Jones's arrangement. The knockout punch is delivered by Rahsaan Roland Kirk who weighs in with a heroic, careening, manic blow that almost knocks the band off the stand. The rest of the album doesn't wear so well in the test of time. "Killer Joe" still resonates, but the rest of the songs feel languid and dated. The worst is "Oh Happy Day", which at the time, was a top-10 hit by the Edwin Hawkins singers. Removing the gospel lyrics may have seemed the right secular thing to do at the time, but in retrospect the song seems robbed of its spirit and comes off as the worst of bad muzak posing as jazz."

Classic

Bill Your 'Free Form FM Handi Cyber | Mahwah, NJ USA | 06/28/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Quincy Jones had been composing soundtracks for years when this album came out in 1969. These were jazz scores, and created a symphonic big band blues that was fat and lucious.



He takes the same ideas and applies them, here, to the title track, and other standards such as "Dead End" and "Killer Joe."



The arrangements here are big and spacious, with plenty of top calabre soloing by some of the best jazz pros available at the time. Jones litterally transforms his chosen materal from rock and soundtrack pieces to amazing jazz vehicles. This is pretty conventinal big band jazz, but Jones' selection and arrangements are so big, yet so fluid, the music is rich and grand. He has always been a master at tone color and texture, and this is exploited to the hilt on Walking In Space.



The audio here has a eccho, as if you are listening to a big band in a theatre or dancehall. During a solo, the other horns are always mixed back, so you actually get the depth of a big soundstage. This lends itself perfectly to the nuance Quincy so beatifully creates.



On a good stereo, you can litterally hear the instruments reverberating off your walls. (Audiophiles dream of albums like this, and if you are into tubes and have a big listening space, you have to buy this for the sound quality alone.) Great musicians don't do anything by chance on records, and on Walking In Space, the master has executed his plan perfectly."