This Is How I Feel About Quincy

This session recorded in 2004 features alto sax great Phil Woods and his Little Big Band performing memorable jazz songs written by legendary composer/arranger Quincy Jones. Phil is joined by 8 other jazz musicians including Bill Charlap on piano and Brian Lynch on trumpet: 'As this marvelous record so eloquently bears out, Phil Woods today is at the very top of his form-and that, my friends, is a claim based on nearly fifty years (help!) of listening to this extraordinary artist, live and on record. Here Phil pays homage to another dear friend, happily very much alive, and Phil's junior by about 16 months, the one and only Quincy Jones. The title is derived from a l956 LP-Quincy's first as a leader-called 'This Is How I Feel About Jazz'. This is not the place for even a brief resume of Q.'s amazing career; suffice it to say that by then he had already developed an original voice as an arranger and composer and paid his dues as a member of Lionel Hampton's trumpet section, sitting next to Clifford Brown and Art Farmer. (Digression: It is a tribute to Phil as a person as well as a musician that he has been able to maintain his own regularly constituted group for lo, these many years; Steve Gilmore and Bill Goodwin were on board when the quartet started in 1974; it became a quintet nine years later. Pianists and horns have also shown staying power; Brian's been on board since 1992, and Bill Charlap joined in '95; he's on his own now as one of the best and brightest, and he and Brian just recently joined forces on a fine CD.) Quincy is bound to love it. As will you, dear listener, and not just for a spin. This is the real thing.' Dan Morgenstern- Director, Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University.