Dr. Greg Johnson, the orchestra's music director, said that he wants the concerts to tell the story of Quincy Jones. 'I'm trying to pick music from every era of his career, but not necessarily the obvious ones. His music was so diverse and he worked with so many different artists.'
Johnson's other priority was to highlight the members of the Reno Jazz Orchestra. 'The Reno Jazz Orchestra has some characters in it that I'm really excited to feature. So it's really all about the members of the band.'
Quincy Jones was, in Johnson's words, 'a trumpet player, a pianist. He was an arranger. He was a producer.' He collaborated with many of the greatest musicians of the last several decades, and became known for his ability to bring out the best in the musicians he worked with. 'I think that was his superpower,' Johnson continued. 'Quincy, his power stems from his ability to recognize other people's sound and bring out what is them about them. You know, we certainly see that with what he did, starting with Frank Sinatra, you know, even further back than that with like Lionel Hampton even or Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald … maybe, you know, the peak being what he did with Michael Jackson on Off the Wall and Bad and Thriller. He just was really able to bring out their voice.'
Johnson said of the Reno Jazz Orchestra's performances that 'I hope people will come and see it and just walk away thinking like, wow, I didn't even know his reach was that deep.'
The Reno Jazz Orchestra's 'A Tribute to Quincy Jones' takes place on Monday, July 21 at 7:30 p.m. at Sand Harbor State Park, part of the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival Partner Series, and again on Tuesday, July 22 at 6:00 p.m. at the Quad at the University of Nevada, Reno, a free show presented by Artown. renojazzorchestra.org.
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Support for 'Arts on the Airwaves' comes from The Nevada Arts Council… a state agency that provides public funding and support to artists and organizations, that benefit Nevadans in cities and rural communities statewide. More at NVArtsCouncil.org.
