From "Quincy Jones, Giant of American Music, Dies at 91/As a producer, he made the best-selling album of all time, Michael Jackson’s 'Thriller.' He was also a prolific arranger and composer of film music" (NYT).
The name Michael Jackson makes the headline of this obituary, but there are so many other names in this incredibly rich life story. What a life in music!
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Every Michael Jackson album that Quincy produced had at least one killer tune.
That’s all nice, but his greatest achievement Peggy Lipton, Nastassjs Kinski, Ulla Andresson….
JSM
Yes he was pretty much the recording industry for a substantial period. It was once fashion to reject performers like Cosby and Jackson but recent events suggest it was part of the gig and they just had bad publicists…
"His first pop success was with the singer Lesley Gore, only 16 when Mr. Jones came into possession of her demo tape. “She had a mellow, distinctive voice and sang in tune, which a lot of grown-up rock ’n’ roll singers couldn’t do, so I signed her,” he wrote. He helped make the song “It’s My Party” (1963) into a No. 1 hit for Ms. Gore, rushing acetates to radio stations just before another version of the song, sung by the Crystals and produced by Phil Spector, which remains unreleased."
He beat Phil Spector in 1963.
An amazing musician. He will be missed.
A giant.
RIP Quincy. An intelligent mind coupled to an intelligent set of ears was a powerful thing in his heyday. He was like a four star Michelin chef in the kitchen of his musical palace. Now we have autotune for that. Sigh.
And he was a helluva musician before that.
Bonus points for Mr. Jones.
Just Once is a brilliant song.
I would posit that Quincy’s incredibly rich life story” thoroughly encompasses the birth, maturation, heyday, decline and end of the popular music recording industry. It has no devolved to the point where the real creative energy is in home recordings by unknowns who break through on Spotify or YouTube. The “industry” has become so cookie cutter that the “stars” are interchangeable. Very little separation between the material and production of “ne” songs by Beyoncé or Swift or Gaga or whatever. Pop music is boring now. The only genre still taking risks and “keeping it real” is Country. People as different as Scotty McCleery and Jelly Roll can break through the sameness and stand out by being outstanding.
The story has it Miles Davis beat up his wife because she remarked that Quincy Jones was a good looking man.
QJ was a giant among giants of our musical heritage. He’ll be remembered as all of the others have been after they passed from the scene. “Once I built a railroad, made it run, made it race against time. Once I built a railroad, now it’s done, buddy can you spare a dime.”
One of my favorites. I'll just mention Sinatra Live at the Sands, 1964, arranged and conducted by Q. I'm pretty sure this is Sinatra's best album. Then there was Aretha, Hey Now Hey, a few years later. Aretha and Q disagreed about the shape and flow of this album, and I don't think Aretha was thrilled with it, but there are some fantastic tracks on there.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Quincy Jones"
"Former enslaved worker"
So, they were creating jobs for blacks back then, eh, NYTimes?
An amazing talent.
A nice nugget from Wiki: "Jones credited his father's sturdy work ethic with giving him the means to proceed, and his loving nature with holding the family together. Jones cited his father's rhyming motto: 'Once a task is just begun, never leave until it's done. Be the labor great or small, do it well or not at all.'"
Achieving recognition as a good trumpeter, he crossed paths with another phenomenon. "Jones played second trumpet in the studio band that supported 21-year-old Elvis Presley in his first six television appearances (1956). Presley sang 'Heartbreak Hotel', which became his first No. 1 record and the Billboard magazine Pop Record of the year."
[also from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quincy_Jones]
What a fascinating life. Thank you Mr. Jones.
LOL!
I bought the album "The Dude" when I was 15 years old. Great album.
His best creation was Rashida Jones.
Typical academic speak. Why not use the perfectly clear and simple word slave? Because some 'studies' professor needed to pad the word count on their BS thesis?
Truly one of the greats R.I.P.
One of the most catholic go-to guys in the industry.
Nice to see a talented man, live a long full life. 91 is quite an achievement. Noticed he was married to Peggy lipton from "The Mod squad" - LOL!
Damn that is one weird badly NTY's Obit sentence. What someone couldn't have edited that? The man was 91, they probably had a pre-written obit on file for years.
I had to read it twice to figure how the "Former enslaved worker" was related to Q.Jones. As far as I can figure out, he met his Grandmother when he was 10 in 1943, and she was what? In her late 70s or 80s?
Okey Dokey. According to Wikipedia Jones found out he was 1/3 white. Does the NYT's talk about that?
I love the way the media, publishing and academia works these days. Some mysterious somebody wakes up one day and decides "Hey, we're not going to use the word "Slave" anymore. Its now 'enslaved X" And everyone salutes and starts doing it. And they do that with any number of words and phrases.
And then women hop on board with a gusto. Because its "Fashionable" and you feel superior to other women who use the "Old" word.
Crazy.
He mentored Emily Bear and produced her first album. Among all the other amazing things he did. RIP
I saw Quincy at Montreux...a rare experience...he will be missed.
Fun fact: In 1974, Quincy Jones suffered two brain aneurysms, leading doctors to give him only a 1% chance of survival. Anticipating the worst, his friends and family organized a memorial service. Remarkably, Jones recovered swiftly and, within a month, attended the service himself.
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