Quincy Jones (March 14, 1933 – November 3, 2024) – There's A Train Leavin' (1976)
Quincy co-wrote and produced this little known, phenomenal funky gospel-flavored jam for his 1976 double LP I Heard That!! featuring an all-star Q-Funk lineup.
Watch full video on Substack or YouTube.
Quincy Jones is a legendary musical genius, a multi-talented producer, songwriter, composer, arranger, bandleader, and musician. He has won 28 Grammys over the course of his seven decade-long career.
Quincy Delight Jones Jr. was born on the South Side of Chicago. His next-door neighbor Lucy Jackson played the piano, and as a child he would listen through the walls. She eventually let him learn to play on it. His family moved to Seattle when he was in high school. There, at age 14, he met 16-year old Ray Charles when he saw him play at the city’s Black Elks Club. He attended Berklee College of Music in Boston on a scholarship before Lionel Hampton invited him to join his touring band.
A good introduction to his musical journey is “Q Calling: An Interview with Quincy Jones,” published by Wax Poetics in 2021. He tells many stories, beginning with the days when he was first starting out playing with Hampton and Dizzy Gillespie in the early fifties, sharing a room on the road with fellow band member Benny Golson.
He has scored or produced the soundtracks to nearly forty films, most of them during the 60s and early 70s. His credits include classics like In the Heat of the Night (1967), In Cold Blood (1967), The Italian Job (1969), Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969), They Call Me Mister Tibbs! (1970), Brother John (1971), The Getaway (1972), Roots (1977), The Wiz (1978), and The Color Purple (1985).
Among his many firsts, Q was the first Black artist to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Score, after his groundbreaking work on In Cold Blood. He composed the score in real time while the film was in production, writing new music nightly to accompany the film footage shot that day.
During the seventies, he moved away from scoring films and focused on releasing more of his own albums. As he told Wax Poetics in 2021:
“I got tired of the movies and just wanted to go into the studio with my favorite musicians—Freddie Hubbard, Hubert Laws, Herbie Hancock, and just let ’em blow.”
In 1974, he was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm and thought the end was near, even attending his own memorial service. It was cured after two operations, which left him with a new lease on life.
He threw himself into his next project, producing and arranging the great double album I Heard That!! (1976). One of its best cuts was the little known, phenomenal gospel-flavored funk soul jam “There’s A Train Leavin'.” He co-wrote the track with gospel singer/songwriter Charles May, who wrote or co-wrote (with Jones) half of the album’s eight new tracks, and it featured an all-star lineup of studio musicians and special guests including Louis “Thunder Thumbs” Johnson on bass.
It was also released two years later as the B-side to Q's #1 R&B hit single “Stuff Like That” (1978).
I Heard That!! was arguably his masterpiece solo LP, although it didn’t sell particularly well, peaking at #16 R&B. It did top the jazz album charts. The first record contained new material, and the second was a compilation of previously released hits from his A&M catalog. He co-wrote the funky title track with Dave Grusin, and co-wrote the inspirational jam “You Have To Do It Yourself” with May and another gospel songwriter, David Pridgen.
The double album's all-star lineup included guest appearances by some of the greatest soul, funk and jazz musicians of the 70s, like Stevie Wonder, George Duke, Herbie Hancock, Bob James, David T. Walker, Melvin “Wah Wah Watson” Ragin, Stanley Clarke, Alphonso "Slim" Johnson, Billy Cobham, Harvey Mason, James Gadson, Freddie Hubbard, Hubert Laws, Jim Gilstrap, Al Jarreau, the Stairsteps (aka the Five Stairsteps), and Minnie Riperton.
Additional vocalists on the LP included Barbara Massey, Bill Withers, Bruce Fisher, Carol Willis, Don Elliott, George Johnson, Hilda Harris, Jesse Kirkland, Joe Greene, Leon Ware, Maeretha Stewart, Marilyn Jackson, Myrna Matthews, and Valerie Simpson.
Happy 90th Birthday to the living legend Q!
#funk #soul #gospel #QuincyJones