Back On the Block

Quincy Jones gathered several generations' worth of musicians for Back On the Block, his 1989 salute to street music and culture. Not least of these was old friend Ray Charles, who won major R&B chart success with the album's "I'll Be Good to You," a teaming with Chaka Khan on the old Brothers Johnson hit. Of course, the good music and good feeling hardly stopped there. Another big hit came in the form of "The Secret Garden (Sweet Seduction Suite)," a meeting of smooth voices that included Barry White, James Ingram and El DeBarge. Elsewhere, the likes of Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, and Ella Fitzgerald sit alongside New Breed-ers such as Big Daddy Kane. With Back on the Block, Jones mixes the old and the (then) new, the modern and the classic, with satisfying results.