Farewell, Quincy Jones – I'll always remember you

There are many reasons to remember Quincy Jones, who has died aged 91 in Los Angeles. Let me deal with just one. Jones was responsible for the soundtrack of one of the most remarkable films of the 1960s, In The Heat of The Night, which is still in my all-time top ten of movies.

Directed by the peerless Norman Jewison (who also died this year, aged 97), the film is mostly remembered for the clever, nuanced performances from the two leading actors and the sometimes electric interplay between them – Rod Steiger as the tired, reflexively bigoted and lonely white sheriff of a small Mississippi steel town and Sidney Poitier as the suave, articulate, black detective from Philadelphia who is unfortunately deposited in this backwater and immediately accused of murder.

This partnership carries the film – rather better than the plotting, which is, if we are honest, a little cumbersome and confused. But what also carries you along is the soundtrack. I cannot think, offhand, of another film in which the music is so in keeping with the tenor and atmosphere of the movie, not even Taxi Driver. This is true particularly of the wonderfully smoky, organ-drenched title track, part blues, part gospel and composed by Jones and sung by Ray Charles. But then there is Jones’ perfectly judged, irresistibly catchy – and very funny – parody of a deep south delta cracker country choon, ‘Foul Owl On The Prowl’, sung by the duo Booner and Travis, the melody and arrangement again from Jones. It is such a good song. Good enough for Norah Jones to cover it with the Little Willies forty years later.