[0:01]Masters Radio presents music history, episode 6, the life and death of American music legend Quincy Jones.
[0:22]Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Quincy Jones.
[0:28]Yeah. This is where the movie gets its mojo, baby. Groovy.
[0:45]Quincy Delight Jones, Jr., was an American record producer, songwriter, composer, arranger, film and television producer, and above all, a respected mentor by many. Over the course of his seven-decade career, he received many accolades, including 28 Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Tony Award, as well as nominations for seven other Academy Awards and four Golden Globe Awards. In his early years, he and his brother were in the streets a lot when they strayed into the wrong neighborhood.
[1:21]Another injury came from an ice pick to the face. His father took the family to Washington State, where one night, Quincy and some friends broke into a community center looking for food. Inside, there was a piano. Quincy recalled, I touched it and every cell in my body said this is what you'll do for the rest of your life. In another conversation with rapper Kendrick Lamar for a 2018 Netflix documentary, he said the encounter changed my life, adding that I would have been dead or in prison a long time ago if he hadn't discovered music. At the age of 14, he made friends with another then unknown musician called Ray Charles, who became a lifelong collaborator. He also played with Billy Holiday at 14 and got taken under the wings of bandleader Count Basie and trumpeter Clark Terry in the beginning of his career. In 1953, at the age of 20, Quincy Jones traveled with jazz band leader Lionel Hampton for a European tour of the Hampton Orchestra. He said that tour changed his view of racism in the United States. Everybody had these hassles, and you saw it was a basic part of human nature, these conflicts. It opened my soul. It opened my mind. After leaving the Hampton band in 1954, Jones settled in New York and started writing for anyone who would pay. In 1956, he accepted a temporary job at CBS Stage Show hosted by Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey. He ended up playing second trumpet in the studio band that supported 21-year-old Elvis Presley in his first six television appearances. Soon after, as a trumpeter and musical director for Dizzy Gillespie, Jones went on tour to the Middle East and South America, sponsored by the United States Information Agency. After returning, he signed a contract with ABC Paramount and started his recording career as the leader of his band. And in 1957, he moved to Paris, where he studied composition and theory with Nadia Boulanger and Oliver Messiaen, and performed at the Paris Olympia. He soon became music director at Barkley, a French record company. During this time in Paris, Jones also toured Europe with several jazz orchestras. He was musical director of Harold Arlen's jazz musical, Free and Easy. Then he took to the road again with musicians from the Arlen Show. He formed his big band, The Jones Boys, with 18 musicians. The band included double bass player Eddie Jones and trumpeter Runald Jones, neither were relations. The concerts met enthusiastic audiences and sparkling reviews, but the earnings failed to support a band of that size. Poor budget planning resulted in an economic disaster. The band dissolved, leaving Jones in a financial crisis. He stated, we had the best band on the planet, and yet we were literally starving. That's when I discovered that there was music and there was music business. If I were going to survive, I would have to learn a difference between the two. Irving Green, head of Mercury Records, helped Jones with a personal loan and a job as musical director of the company's New York division. Quincy Jones first worked with Frank Sinatra in 1958, when invited by Princess Grace to arrange a benefit concert at the Monaco Sporting Club. Six years later, Sinatra hired him to arrange and conduct Sinatra's second album. Jones conducted and arranged Sinatra's live album with the Basie Band called Sinatra at the Sands. Jones stated that Frank Sinatra took me to a whole new planet. I worked with him until he passed in '98. He left me his ring and I never take it off. Now, I don't need a passport when I go to Sicily. I just flash my ring. In 1961, Jones was promoted and became the vice president of Mercury Records, which made him the first African American to hold the position. And then that same year, Jones composed music for the pawnbroker, by invitation of director Sidney Lumet, and it became the first of his nearly 40 major motion picture scores. Following the success of the movie, Jones left Mercury and moved to LA. After composing film scores for Mirage in The Slender Thread, in 1965, he was in constant demand as a composer over the next seven years. His film credits, some of the most classic known films.
[5:43]Jones even had his tune, Soul Bossa Nova, which originated on the Big Band Bossa Nova album, used as a theme for the 1997 spy comedy, Austin Powers. International man of mystery. Jones also produced all four million selling singles for Leslie Gore during the early to mid-60s, including It's My Party. Its sequel, Judy's Turn to Cry, and Jones continued to produce for Gore until 1966. In 1974, Jones developed an aneurysm, leading to a decision to reduce his workload and spend time with his friends and family. Since his friends and family believed Jones's life was coming to an end, they started to plan a memorial service for him. He attended his own service with his neurologist by his side, in case he excitement overwhelmed him. He had two brain surgeries, and after the second, he was warned to never play the trumpet again. Because if he blew a trumpet in the way a trumpet player must, the clip in his head would come free and he would die. He ignored that advice and went on tour in Japan, and one night after playing trumpet, he had a pain in his head. Doctors said the clip in his brain had nearly come loose, as they warned, and sadly, Jones never was able to play trumpet again. In 1975, Quincy founded Quest Productions, for which he arranged and produced successful albums, by, of course, Frank Sinatra and so many other great legends. Then in 1978, he produced the soundtrack for The Wiz, which is a musical adaptation of the Wizard of Oz, which starred Michael Jackson and Diana Ross. While working on The Wiz, Michael Jackson asked Jones to recommend some producers for his upcoming solo album. He offered some names, but eventually offered to produce the record himself, and of course, Jackson accepted. And the resulting record, Off the Wall, sold around 20 million copies. This made Jones the most powerful record producer in the industry at the time. Jackson's next collaboration, Thriller, sold 65 million copies and became the highest selling album of all time. Jones also worked on Jackson's album, Bad, which sold over 45 million copies. In an interview, he was asked if he would work with Michael Jackson again, and they were in talks. But he wasn't able to work with him like he wanted before Michael's unfortunate and devastating passing. When he passed, Quincy Jones said, I am absolutely devastated at this tragic and unexpected news for Michael to be taken away from us so suddenly at a young age. I just don't have the words. Divinity brought our souls together on The Wiz and allowed us to do what we were able to do throughout the 80s. The music we created together, on Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad, is played in every corner of the world. The reason for that is because he had it all, talent, grace, professionalism, and dedication. He was the consummate entertainer, and his contributions and legacy will be in the world forever. I've lost my little brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him.
[8:47]Jones's debut as a film producer in 1985's The Color Purple received 11 Oscar nominations that year. Thomas Newman and Alan Silverstein are the only other composers, besides John Williams, to have written scores for a Steven Spielberg directed theatrical feature film. After the 1985 American Music Awards ceremony, Jones used his influence to draw most of the major American recording artists of the day into a studio to record the song, We Are the World, to raise money for the victims of famine in Ethiopia. Quincy explained, to make this collaboration work, he had a sign taped at the entrance reading, check your ego at the door. He was also quoted saying, we don't want to make a hunger record in tuxedos and required all participants to wear casual clothing in the studio. In 1986, Jones started off Quest Entertainment to produce theatrical feature films. He launched a video label, Quest Video, in order to manage the home video titles made by the studio. They continued to operate their pre-existing subsidiaries, like Quest Records, Quincy Jones Productions, and US Music Publishing.
[9:58]By the 90s, Quincy Jones Production signed a 10-picture deal with Warner Brothers and a two-series deal with NBC Production, including Fresh Prince of Bel Air, which so happened to be Will Smith's first acting credit. From 1995 to 1999, Jones also produced first run syndications, The Jenny Jones Show and Fox's Mad TV, which ran for 14 seasons. In the early 1990s, he started a huge ongoing project called The Evolution of Black Music. Jones worked with Miles Davis, Ray Charles appeared on episodes of The Boondocks, and even hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live on February 10, 1990. In 1993, Jones collaborated with David Solsman to produce the concert on American Reunion, which was a celebration of Bill Clinton's inauguration as president of the United States. During that same year, he and Solsman renamed his company to Quincy Jones, David Solsman Entertainment. In 1999, Jones appeared in the Walt Disney Pictures animated film, Fantasia 2000, introducing the set piece of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. In 2001, Jones published his autobiography, The Autobiography of Quincy Jones. And in July 2007, Jones partnered with Wizard Media to start the Quincy Jones Video Podcast. In each episode, he shared his knowledge and experience in the music industry. The first episode features him in the studio producing for Celine Dion. In 2010, Jones, along with brand strategist Chris Vance, co-founded Playground Sessions, a New York City-based developer of subscription software that teaches people to play the piano using interactive video. In March of 2011, President Barack Obama presented Jones with the National Medal of Arts. It is the highest honor given to artists and art patrons by the United States government. Then in 2013, after years of hard work and dedication to the industry, he was finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The next year, he ended up appearing in Keep On Keepin' On, a documentary about his friend and flugelhorn player Clark Terry. Jones and his music were featured at the BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall in London in August 2016. In 2017, Jones and French producer, Reza Ak, started Quest TV, the world's first subscription video on demand service for jazz and eclectic music from around the world. The platform features a hand-picked selection of free concerts, interviews, documentaries, and exclusive original content, all in HD or 4K. And his lifetime supported a number of charities, including NAACP, Glad Peace, James Maybach Foundation, and many more. Jones even became an honorary member of the Board of Directors of the Jazz Foundation of America, where he worked with the foundation to save the homes and lives of America's elderly jazz and blues musicians, including those who had survived Hurricane Katrina. He was a spokesperson for the Global Down Syndrome Foundation, co-founded by his friend, John Sore, which annually awarded the Quincy Jones Exceptional Advocacy Award, and so many more. Quincy was awarded over 45 times, not only for the musical gifts he brought to the world, but for his extensive contribution to philanthropy. Sadly and devastatingly, on November 3rd of 2024, the giant of American music, Quincy Jones, died at his home in Bel Air at the age of 91. Let's please have a moment of silence for the loss of not only one of the most talented names in music behind some of the most iconic productions, but for the exceptional kind and giving human the world has just lost. We can all learn from the world Quincy fostered for the people around him and the way he helped them flourish. Quincy Jones, you will be missed. Thank you so much for watching episode 6 about the music legend Quincy Jones. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and hit that notification bell for more videos like this.
