All one need ask a music maven is "Who's won the most Grammy awards in
history?" The correct answer is classical arranger and conductor Sir Georg Solti; however, the "Grammiest" "popular music" award-winner is
Quincy Jones. Quincy Jones, Grammy awards or not, will also go down in history
as one of the most important forces in jazz and popular music of the twentieth
century, and his work continues into the new millenium.
Jones is known to his legion of collaborators, friends and admirers as "Q." His
list of collaborators is a veritable "who's who" of music industry greats,
including Sinatra, Ray Charles, Peggy Lee, Miles Davis,
Aretha Franklin, Lesley Gore, Count Basie, Billy Eckstine, Carmen
McRae, Diana Ross and many, many others. Perhaps his most financially
successful endeavor was the record-breaking 30-million copy sales of the record
he produced for the infamous Michael Jackson, Thriller. Despite his
immense success in the record business as a producer, there
are many more facets to the artistic diamond named Quincy Jones.
...Strong women, or
women who just
wish they were strong,
need strong brothers
more than they need attentive lovers
or indulgent husbands.
They need brothers who have the courage
to say, your most recent behavior
does not become you—straighten up...
Quincy Jones among all the things he is
is my chosen brother and
I thank him for that
—Maya Angelou
Sanford and Son, Ironside, The Bill Cosby Show; when America
tuned their television sets in to these shows, the theme music and many of the
"cues" (incidental music) were either written or arranged by Jones. Beside
filling American living rooms with television scores each week, he also wrote,
arranged and produced a lot of music for the silver screen.
ANECDOTE:
A testimony to the versatility of Jones's music for Hollywood: Tucked
away in a vault was a recording produced by Phil Ramone in 1962. It had
appeared on a Quincy Jones 1962 album Big Band Bossa Nova and beside the
signature flute line featured Clark Terry on trumpet, along with some of
the major talent of the day. In 1962 the hippest folks were going to the new
night clubs; discotheques. Girls dared to wear their first mini-skirts.
Modern design had transcended the outrageous "space age" streamlining of the
late '50s and was morphing into something closer to the simplicity of Danish
modern. The song was "Soul Bossa Nova," written, arranged and directed by
Jones and the hippest sound around of its day. Well, the producers of the
Mike Meyers movie Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
thought it "shag-a-delic" enough that they used it as the theme song for the
movie, 35 years later.
Beginnings
Quincy Delight Jones was born in the midst of the Great Depression on the
infamous South Side of Chicago, Illinois on March 14, 1933. By the time he'd
discovered that music was a significant interest, his family had uprooted to
Seattle, Washington, where he sang with a gospel choir and took lessons on the
trumpet. In 1950, he graduated high school and scored a scholarship at Berklee
School of Music (at the time of his enrollment, it was called "Schillinger
House."
He didn't finish a degree at Schillinger House; opting instead to seek fame
and fortune in The Big Apple; New York, after being brought to
the attention of jazz great Lionel Hampton. It was 1953, and Hampton took him
on as a second-seat trumpeter in his band. It was a once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity for Jones to rub elbows with many jazz greats, where he learned more
from the demands of a rehearsal and performance schedule than could ever be
learned at a music school. So skilled was the young musician he was hired by the
likes of Count Basie, Cannonball Adderley, Tommy Dorsey and others as an
arranger of others' songs.
In 1956, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie stole Quincy Jones away from Hampton's
organization. Later that year, Gillespie tapped Jones as director of a special
big band featuring top international performers. Ever the hard worker, "Q" found
enough time to record his first album, This Is How I Feel About Jazz, on
the Paramount label. The record enjoyed a modicum of sales, but was far from a
harbinger of the critical acclaim and popular success of his future efforts.
By the way, beside all of his arranging, conducting and producing chores, he
still managed to get onto record playing the trumpet in his own inimitable
fashion. Many biographies of Jones underplay the fine command of the instrument
Jones possesses.
Do You Know Quincy Jones?
Quincy Jones has never been a big self-promoter so far as the general public
is concerned. A humble yet very accomplished artist, he's let the success of his
ventures over the course of sixty years speak for themselves. It's amazing that
one man could turn out the enormous body of work he has; not only in the musical
arena, but elsewhere. He is a published author, has produced motion pictures,
and has been involved in television series development, production and music.
Unless you're a die-hard fan of jazz or R&B, you may have never been exposed
to a Quincy Jones "written-produced-directed" album. It is his collaborations
with some of the most legendary artists in the fields of jazz and popular music
that created the legend called "Q." Suffice it to say that his career has been a
diverse one; so diverse, in fact, that he arguably has no rivals in the
entertainment industry on the basis of the amount and diversity of his creative
efforts.
The Jazz Man
Like so many bohemians (particularly persons of color) in the
music world of the 1950s, Jones relocated to Paris in 1957. He studied with
Nadia Boulanger, who was not well-known for her performances nor compositions,
but was a legendary educator in the area of composition, musical theory and
direction. Q's experiences in the beatnik years of the late '50s and early
'60s include arranging and producing sessions for legends like Jacques Brel
and Charles Aznavour. He traveled throughout France and Europe with American
artists, as well.
Jones's French period ended when the American record label Mercury heard his
work. He was only 28 years old when he was named a Vice President at Mercury.
A Milestone: this was the first time a black man had been hired as a
high-level executive for one of the major American labels.
Mercury's gamble with Quincy Jones paid off when he stepped out of the jazz
limelight and arranged and produced the teenage sensation Lesley Gore's smash
hit "It's My Party." Gore went on to pioneer pop lyrics and delivery,
particularly with the controversial feminist statement "You Don't Own Me," which
was far ahead of its time. Jones was right behind her, encouraging such
trend-setting sounds. You Don't Own Me didn't chart well, and earned nary
a Grammy, but it made a statement that was an inspiration for budding feminists
and particularly young black women that changed lives. Somehow,
in-between duties for the Mercury label, on a freelance basis, he arranged music
for Ray Charles, who he had met when they were both very young, on the Atlantic
label.
Hooray for Hollywood!
Until 1958 the music we heard at the movies was written by aging white guys.
Director Sidney Lumet changed that when he wanted a trend-setting score for
his movie The Pawnbroker. Quincy Jones paved the way for black composers
in a "lily-white" This marked a big change in Jones's life; he left France and
settled in Los Angeles. There, he would compose the music for 33 major motion
pictures and countless other smaller projects.
After Lumet's Pawnbroker, he was hired on a gamble to score A
Slender Thread. After that came many significant motion pictures, and
television. Jones was the composer of choice when a movie producer needed
something cutting-edge. Jones was the youngest of the great Hollywood composers
of the day, and his assiduous attention to the content of the movies he was
writing for became the stuff of legend. Controversial movies like The
Anderson Tapes, Walk, Don't Run, In Cold Blood, In The Heat of the Night, A
Dandy in Aspic, Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice, The Lost Man, and the Getaway
are some of his most notable scores.
The Small Screen
The law-and-order television viewing demographic had become used to the
suspenseful, intense yet somewhat hackneyed theme for the famous Perry
Mason. When the series ended, it's star, Raymond Burr, was tapped to star
in a series about a wheelchair-bound lawyer called Ironside. It is
arguable that the audience was attracted to the show's contemporary concept (a
wheelchair-bound star) and the general cutting-edge content of the
show. Part of that was the first television theme song that featured the new
electronic synthesizer. Following that coup, two of Jones's most important
television themes were that for The Bill Cosby Show (which included
peculiar yet catchy mouth-noises from Cosby himself) but more importantly, the
harmonica-laden, instantly familiar yet very jazzy theme to the series
Sanford and Son, which starred Redd Foxx and was a milestone in the
development of series starring persons of color in controversial, yet believable funny
situations.
Q and Ol' Blue Eyes
In 1964 Count Basie convinced Jones to arrange and produce an album with
Basie and none other than Frank Sinatra. The album, It Might As Well Be
Swing, became an instant popular hit because of the mixture of two of the
greatest sounds in swing. And swing it does. The album is as fresh today as it
was in '64. Jones would produce two more albums for Sinatra, including the
Grammy-Award winning Sinatra at the Sands, and Sinatra's third to last
album, L.A. Is My Lady. (Sinatra's final two albums were Duets I
and Duets II). One of Sinatra's most popular songs, "Fly Me To The Moon
(In Other Words)," was arranged and produced by Jones. The song has appeared in
movie soundtracks, and on television, most notably in the HBO smash series,
The Sopranos.
A Social Conscience
Jones was a significant supporter of "Operation Breadbasket," led by the Rev.
Dr. Martin Luther King. The project intended to promote economic development in
urban areas. He later was a board member of the Rev. Jesse Jackson's project,
People United to Save Humanity. Forgive me for veering out of chronological
order, but it was Quincy Jones who produced the "We Are The World" song; a
single, to promote awareness of the responsibilities of world citizenship. He
gathered together an awesome array of significant stars; not the usual has-beens
that show up for telethons, but major artists with records on the charts. Rumor
has it that the door to the studio bore a handwritten sign taped next to it that
read "leave your egos at the door." There have been many take-offs on that
concept with regard to stars recording with one another, however, this is the
one that started it all (Variety Magazine).
Most important to Jones from his early days in jazz was to promote
African-American music and culture. He was one of the founders of the Institute
for Black American Music (IBAM). One of IBAM's most important achievements was
to found a national library of African-American art and music. He also was a
co-founder of the Black Arts Festival in Chicago, Illinois.
One of the most important television programs he was involved in producing
was a special for CBS entitled Duke Ellington, We Love You Madly. Jones
led the orchestra, and featured performers included Peggy Lee, Count Basie,
Aretha Franklin, Joe Williams and Sarah Vaughan. Ellington's music was given
tender loving care and the program did very well in the Nielsen ratings.
Recording The Soundtrack for America
Despite his hectic production schedule, Jones found the time to go into the
studio with a gaggle of top-notch R&B, popular and soul
artists. From 1969 until 1981 it seemed that every Quincy Jones-produced record
was destined to earn a Grammy or two or three or four. The notable 1973 album
Body Heat sold over a million copies and lingered on the charts at no lower than number five for six months. Now, no musician
nor producer can please "all of the people all of the time." In 1973, Jones
produced an album for the great Aretha Franklin called Hey Now Hey (The
Other Side of the Sky). Although the album was panned by critics, it did
make it to number 2 on the Billboard "black" charts. It also garnered Franklin
an Emmy for Best Female Vocal Performance for the song Master of Eyes.
The album cover had a psychedelic look but the tunes were innovative and genuine
Aretha. It was the final soul album before Franklin got on the disco train.
One of the tunes has special meaning, however, for Jones:
ANECDOTE:
Quincy Jones and composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein were close friends.
Jones and Franklin added Bernstein's song "Somewhere" from the play and movie
West Side Story to Aretha's Hey Now Hey album. The recording of this
song provided what Jones called one of the most emotionally affecting
experiences of his life. "This is a recording," he says, "that when I leave this
planet I want them to play. It's one of the most moving vocal performances I've
ever experienced or witnessed in my life. And Aretha played piano, too. God just
came in and took over the whole space. You can really feel it. When I played it
for [Bernstein] he cried like a baby."
Recalling his long friendship with Bernstein, Jones told the story of how
Bernstein was constantly bugging Jones to teach him how to say "Yo Mama."So
I told him if the cellist says, 'Mr. Bernstein, I think your downbeat in bar
41 was a little flabby,' you say 'Yo Mama.' But he always blew it and said 'Yo
Yo Ma.'" The two were in Rome visiting the Sistine Chapel. There's a sign
there that insists that people refrain from lying on the floor to look at
the famous ceiling. Well, the two friends ignored the sign and were lying on
the floor when "this monsignor comes running in and cries 'basta,
no!' But Lennie [Bernstein] kept lying there and turned to me and said 'Yo Mama?'. I
said it was the right time and the right way to say it but the wrong place."
The Music Almost Ends
In August of 1974 Jones suffered a cerebral aneurism. He survived the
usually fatal episode, with the help of two brain surgeries. He was out of
commission for six months thereafter. Finally, his recuperation ended, he was
back at work. He started out slowly, finishing out his contract with the A&M
record label. But soon he was right back in the thick of things. One of the
sources for this article, however, mentioned that a by-product of one of his
surgeries, a bone chip in the cranium, could be easily dislodged. This prevented
him from continuing to play the trumpet.
Q and Jacko
Michael Jackson's first solo album was Off The Wall. It sold eight
million copies and Jackson became an international mega-superstar. Jones became
the most sought-after record producer in Hollywood. In 1982, recording history
was made with their collaboration on Jackson's Thriller. The album broke
records and became the best-selling album of all time, beating the Beatles, with
thirty million copies. Six singles from the album made the Billboard top ten
chart. The two even got legendary horror actor Vincent Price to do a "rap"
of sorts on the title track. Indeed, Thriller's popularity had people
moving to it's songs for years after the album's initial release.
The 1980s were good years to Quincy Jones. Despite a demanding schedule
arranging and producing records for musicians, he dipped his big toe in the
highly competitive fishpond of Hollywood movie-making. In 1985, he became
co-producer of The Color Purple, adapted by Steven Spielberg from the
book by Alice Walker. Then-veteran standup comic Whoopi Goldberg and Chicago
television personality Oprah Winfrey became outstanding movie actresses,
earning them international fame overnight. The film won eleven Oscar
nominations. Suffice it to say that he became a pretty big fish in that pond
very quickly.
Jones and Jackson, Jones says, have been in touch with one another, but Jones
says he's too busy to produce another album for the controversial singer: "Man
please, I've got enough to do. We already did that. I have talked to him about
working with him again but I've got too much to do. I've got 900 products, I'm
74 years old. Give me a break."
Quincy Jones Becomes a Corporate Entity
In 1993, Jones teamed up with a producer named David Salzman to produce a
gala concert celebrating the inauguration of President Clinton.
They got along so well, they formed Quincy Jones/David Salzman Entertainment (QDE).
The venture is also partially owned by Time-Warner, Inc.
Well, the company got Jones's fingers into every media pie imaginable. What
started as a production company for "current and future technologies," including
live performances, motion pictures and television grew into a vast, diverse
media empire. Of note is the fact that the firm publishes Vibe magazine
and produced the long-running NBC television series starring Will Smith,
Fresh Prince of Bel Air, as well as In The House and MAD TV.
Separately, Jones owns his own label, Qwest Records, and is Chairman of one
of the largest minority-owned broadcasting companies in the U.S., Qwest
Broadcasting.
Back on the Block
He continues to produce hit records featuring an amazing all-star roster of
players, including Back on the Block and Q's Jook Joint.
It had been eight years since Jones produced an album, at that time for A&M.
Back on the Block evokes the sense of the neighborhood's coolest cat,
returning as smashingly as ever, after an absence.
Here's some of what Richard S. Ginell of AllMusic.Com has to say about
the album:
Quincy Jones made his debut on his own label with his most
extravagant, most star-studded, most brilliantly sequenced pop album to date
-- which could have only been assembled by the man who put together "We Are
the World." Jones was one of the first establishment musicians to embrace
rap, and one of the first to link rap with his jazz heritage; it's hard not
to be moved by the likes of Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, James Moody,
Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Zawinul, Sarah Vaughan, and George Benson
electronically appearing on "Birdland" and trading brief licks with the
likes of Kool Moe Dee and Big Daddy Kane on "Jazz Corner of the World."
Later, jazz buffs would vilify Jones for not taking fuller advantage of this
one-time constellation of jazz stars, but at the time, it seemed like a
marvelous dialogue between the old and the new. Of course, as he well knew,
celebrating jazz history is not the surest route to a blockbuster hit
record, so there are plenty of radio-friendly urban pop productions here,
with Herbie Hancock and George Duke on keyboards, and Siedah Garrett and
12-year-old Tevin Campbell on vocals.
And who but Quincy Jones could have gotten together Ray Charles and Chaka
Khan covering "I'll Be Good To You," originally a hit for The Brothers Johnson.
(A purist, reviewer Ginell calls the song "too busy." I disagree; the two
legendary singers seem to be having a genuinely fun-filled, sensuous romp on
that cut. Finally, the record includes "The Secret Garden," a mainstay of smooth
jazz radio stations, and late-night soul programs like "The Quiet Storm" on New
York's WBLS radio; emulated often by others but never duplicated.
Back on The Block won the Grammy in 1990 for "Album of the Year." It
also won for "Best Engineered Recording, Non-Classical." Three Songs won various
Grammys as well, with the spectacular "Birdland" garnering three Grammys of its
own. With regard to the album's performance on the charts, suffice it to say it
was the most popular in the categories of Urban, R&B and Hip-Hop. The album
itself charted very well, reaching the top ten, again in a variety of genres, in
both 1989 and 1990.
Jones did it again in '95 with Q's Juke Joint; yet another eclectic
album anchored by heavyweight musical legends but showcasing very new talent as
well.
To mention a few, performers Gloria Estefan, Babyface, Phil Collins,
John Clayton (who now works with jazz great Diana Krall, rapper Coolio, Patti
Austin, Nick Ashford (of Ashford and Simpson Fame), Bono, Naomi Campbell,
and many more contributed to an eclectic collection of music from jazz to rap
and everything in-between. Oh, by the way, a guy named Ray Charles sings "Let
the Good Times Roll" on the album, backed by a legion of great big-band
performers, a rapper, and Bono playing the part of a mope who can't get into the
coolest club in town. The album peaked at number one on the Billboard Magazine
Top Contemporary Jazz Album chart in both 1995 and 1996. In was in the
top ten of the R&B/Hip-Hop charts in both years, as well,
and scored a 32 on the '95 Billboard 200. In the decade when [CD|Compact Discs
were coming into their own, a number of singles off the album charted well. The
only Grammy, however, was for "Best Engineered Recording, Non-Classical.
Accolades
Quincy Jones has been nominated for a Grammy award 76
times; more than any other person. He won 26 times. He was nominated seven times
for the Oscar, finally receiving the prestigious Jean Hersholt Humanitarian
Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. A biographical film
of his life was made by Warner Brothers in 1990, and in 2001, he published Q:
The Autobiography of Quincy Jones. Available separately from the book,
The Musical Autobiography of Quincy Jones is four-disc boxed set
includes Jones's favorite accomplishments.
It is a testimony to Jones's humility that he's managed to
stay out of the limelight and is in fact an unfamiliar name to many people. He
has granted precious few interviews and made even fewer television appearances.
Quincy Jones is truly the music industry's Renaissance Man.
SOURCES:
Perfect People (bio/photos):
http://www.perfectpeople.net/celebrity-star/3392/quincy-jones.htm (Accessed
August 19, 2008)
NME (Music Industry News Site):
http://www.nme.com/news/michael-jackson/28551 (Accessed August 19, 2008)
AllMusic.com:
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&searchlink=QUINCY|JONES&sql=11:diftxqt5ldfe~T1
(Accessed August 19, 2008)
Starpulse.com:
http://www.starpulse.com/Music/Jones,_Quincy/Biography/ (Accessed August 19,
2008)
IMDb: The Internet Movie Database:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005065/bio (Accessed August 19, 2008)
Academy of Achievement: A museum of living history:
http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/jon0bio-1 (Accessed August 19, 2008)
The Musical Biography of Quincy Jones: (Booklet accompanying four
compact discs) ©2001 Quincy Jones Productions and
Rhino Entertainment Company.