60 Years of Quincy Jones at the Hollywood Bowl

Quincy Jones

On September 7, 2011 Quincy Jones performed a concert with samples of 60 years of his illustrious career at the Hollywood Bowl. While I was working with Keb' Mo' a few weeks ago, the coordinator for Keb' Mo' was also the coordinator for the upcoming Quincy Jones show, her name is Joann Tominaga. Joann asked if I would like to sing backgrounds on the show, and I let her know that I'd love to and that I toured with Q back in 1982, and was also signed to his label after SWITCH as a duo with Attala Zane Giles. The name of our duo was DECO.

It was a FABULOUS night to say the least. The show was about 2-1/2 hours long with literally samples of Q's career spanning 60 years. Quincy had the Big Band playing with Frank Sinatra Jr. singing Fly Me to the Moon. This arrangement is the actual arrangement that Quincy put together for Frank Sinatra. Quincy pulled out all the stops from the first song he wrote, Kingfish, when he was 18 years old to his modern day music. Sharing the stage was Gloria Estefan, Patti Austin, James Ingram, The Bros. Johnson, Siedah Garrett, Seiko, Nikki Yanofsky, Emily Bear, all singing and playing various songs.

James & Patti performing "Baby Come To Me" 

In addition to all of that talent, Nathan East was the Musical Director and some of the special guest included, Alfredo Rodriguez, Richard Bona, Francisco Mela, Paulinho Da Costa, and David Paich, Steve Porcaro, & Steve Lukather of the group Toto. 


Singing backgrounds for this event was Nita Whitaker, Amy Keys and myself, Phillip Ingram. It was definitely one of those nights that was pretty much a once in a lifetime event. Herbie Hancock is currently the chair of the Jazz Events at the Hollywood Bowl and he came out to introduce Quincy and said that "they have been trying to get Quincy to come to the Hollywood Bowl and do an evening of his music for years".  He was happy that Quincy agreed while he, Herbie Hancock, was chairman .

George Johnson of the Bros. Johnson

Some of the songs that were performed was "Baby Come To Me", with James Ingram and Patti Austin, "Just Once" with James, "Man In the Mirror" with Siedah Garrett who co-wrote this song with Glenn Ballad. Amy, Nita and I came out front to perform "Human Nature" which was part of the show that was a tribute to Michael Jackson. The Bros. Johnson performed "I'll Be Good To You", "Strawberry Letter 22", & "Stomp".


Arturo Sandoval came out to perform the song Manteca along with Andy Garcia on the Bongos. The Big Band also performed some of the TV theme shows that Quincy wrote, including "Sanford & Son", "Ironside" and the old Bill Cosby show, "Hicky Burr".


Emily Bear, who just turned 10 years old, brought the Hollwood Bowl on their feet with her solo performance, while Nikki Yanofsky, 17 years old, tore up the stage with "Sweet Georgia Brown". As I mentioned Q pulled out all the stops for this one.

Phillip, Quincy, and my daughter Denice

Quincy is now 78 years old and hasn't lost anything. When Joann asked me to do this show, I had a picture of when we toured together back in 1982 / 1983 and the first thing Quincy talked about at the rehearsal on Tuesday is how we've all changed in the last 30 years.

It was a great time with the band, the rehearsals, meeting some of the new musicians that I didn't know, re-connecting with Amy and Nita and most of all being a part of the 60 Years of Quincy Jones at the Hollywood Bowl.


Until Next Time - Phillip