Martin Gray looks back at the charmed and stellar career of one of the most distinguished composers, arrangers and producers of our time: Quincy Jones, who passed away on November 3rd 2024 aged 91.
He was one of the greatest and most singularly influential figures of the last 65+ years, a titanic name in the world of music, film and media. A true legend and iconic presence in every sense of the word. Yesterday’s sad news of Quincy Jones’ passing at the age of 91 has hit me hard, as if 2024 was not a grim enough year for so many losses already.
A man of many prodigious talents: Jazz musician, band leader, record producer, film soundtrack composer, mentor, media mogul, father figure – and anything else he could care to assume duties for (to invariably great success), the incomparable Quincy Delight Jones was for certain an immensely respected figure in entertainment circles.
His formidable reputation and sheer versatility has assured an unprecedented seven-decade career where he has flourished and prospered in music arrangement and production, TV and film soundtracks, setting up media companies as well as later becoming involved in philanthropy and establishing organisations to help young people seek new careers in arts and culture.
A consummate professional and adroit businessman, Jones had impeccable intuitiveness in helping to discover, nurture and launch – and indeed further – the careers of a whole cast of distinguished names, one of the most celebrated being Michael Jackson. Despite his humble beginnings as a typical Chicago youngster who all too inevitably found himself roughing it out with street gangs, he quickly managed to avert that downward spiral when he discovered the joys of music – quickly taking up learning the piano and soon becoming, at the age of 14, a jazz-loving teenager eager to strike out on his own and form his own band and ensembles (which he duly did very quickly but not before also sharing a new found kinship with a 16 year old Ray Charles – the first of his many illustrious musician friends.)
As his experience as a jazz musician grew, so did the list of his associates. Legendary names such as Billie Holiday and Lionel Hampton, the latter with whom he toured in the 1950s, followed by Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, became his contemporaries. In the case of Gillespie, Jones was employed as his musical director when his band was touring South America and the Far East in 1956.
Next came a slew of star-studded associations with the likes of Duke Ellington, Sammy Davis Jr., Peggy Lee, Ella Fitzgerald, and Frank Sinatra, the latter with whom a long recording/production partnership ensued which began in 1958 and only finished in 1984.
The list of alliances read like a long Who’s Who entry … and Quincy was somehow artistically involved and affiliated with them all.
It was from the 1960s onwards that Jones really established himself and furthered his considerable reputation as not just a prolific record producer and arranger but also a composer of film and TV soundtracks. By this point he had also become the first black vice-president of a major record label – Mercury Records – this, during a time when nearly all such high profile media positions were seldom if ever represented by people of any non-white or Caucasian origin. Quincy was one of the first to break down these barriers. Indeed by 1971 he was also the first ever black musical director of the annual TV ceremony for the Academy Awards.
The first of his more than 30 film soundtracks was 1964’s The Pawnbroker. Within a few years he had set up his own iconic production imprint Quincy Jones Productions which oversaw all of the subsequent celluloid and TV releases. Other notable films he scored for included Walk Don’t Run, In The Heat Of The Night, Mackenna’s Gold, The Italian Job, Roots and The Color Purple (the latter marking his debut as a film producer). Holding down concurrent careers as an in-demand film soundtrack AND record producer with effortless ease, he was increasingly prolific: he handled production duties for Lesley Gore and helped her to score four massive chart hits – one of which, It’s My Party, was a US number 1.
But Quincy Jones was not content to stick to just pop, jazz and films: he naturally had the hunger and desire, so branched out into other genres as well….most notably into the area of soul, funk, and r&b music (and later even pop/rock) with which his name and production credit would be most associated in the decades to come.
Starting with the likes of the trumpeter Herb Alpert in 1974, then followed by the Brothers Johnson – with whom he helmed four albums between 1976 and 1980 – and Chaka Khan, and then later hooking up with esteemed artists and songwriters like Stevie Wonder and Rod Temperton (then of 70s Brit funkers Heatwave) respectively, Jones assembled a veritable galaxy of composers and musicians – an all star cast of luminaries to augment his grand musical vision. He had by this point released an impressive sequence of his own star-studded studio albums credited to his name: You’ve Got It Bad Girl (1973), Body Heat (1974), the half-new half-retrospective compilation I Heard That! (1976), and Sounds…And Stuff Like That (1978), all released on Herb Alpert’s A&M label.
Jazz guitarist George Benson was one of the first artists to benefit massively from Quincy’s deft production touches. His 1980 smooth jazz fusion masterpiece Give Me The Night, released on Quincy’s own Qwest imprint – was one of his first major crossover successes. But this was preceded by the first of a trio of classic albums which arguably cemented Quincy’s reputation and had it set in dazzling lights for the rest of his career: Off The Wall by Michael Jackson, released in 1979: the year disco hit the stratospheric peaks on both sides of the Atlantic. It remains an utterly essential benchmark and a masterful distillation of what the serendipitous coming together of two resolutely singular minds can result in: a great pop/soul/disco classic that withstands the test of time.
This he followed in 1981 with another of his own all-star-cast studio albums and arguably his enduring masterpiece: The Dude – released in 1981, which featured Jackson and Stevie Wonder as guest musicians along with Syreeta Wright, Jim Gilstrap, the Brothers Johnson, Rod Temperton, plus the debuts of two new faces/guest vocalists who would soon become established soul / r’n’b names in their own right: James Ingram and Patti Austin. It spawned five international hits and was nominated for 12 Grammy Awards – winning three. This was Quincy’s finest hour…..so far.
But even greater was to come. In late 1982 the biggest selling pop/r’n’b album ever, globally – Jackson’s epic Thriller – was released. There is really nothing more that needs to be added about that particular game changer! But Quincy is rightly proud of the achievement. He also masterminded the production of the grandiose USA For Africa charity project in 1985 which produced the monster hit single We Are The World, whilst at the same time holding court and dealing – in his own diplomatic no-nonsense manner (nobody gets on the wrong side of the guvnor Quincy, you understand!) – with all the gargantuan egos that were suddenly crowded into the studio during its recording.
He reaped comparable mammoth worldwide success with Jackson’s follow up, Bad, in 1987, and then in 1989 he re-surfaced with the successor to his own collaborative The Dude, aptly-titled Back On The Block – with an even more audaciously-assembled roster of stellar names this time including – deep breath – Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Ice-T, Luther Vandross, Daddy Kane, Dionne Warwick, Barry White, George Benson, Chaka Khan, Bobby McFerrin, Al Jarreau, James Ingram (again), and El DeBarge….. It won SEVEN Grammy awards!
By the late 1980s his QWEST recordings had seen so many productions and assignments that even the most unlikely artists were embraced. One notable example being New Order, who had signed to his label to release their mid 1980s albums and singles. Famously, in 1988, the band were approached by Sunkist to rerecord their massive 1983 hit Blue Monday as an ad jingle for Stateside TV. The band blanched at the prospect of changing the words for the short commercial, but eventually, after much procrastination (not to mention dangling of $$$$ carrots!), they acquiesced…and Quincy Jones was then assigned the task of re-mixing the single for a stand alone release – Blue Monday 1988. It was a gigantic worldwide hit all over again. The guy clearly had the Midas Touch which didn’t show any signs of diminishing.
Throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s, Quincy Jones split his time equally between production, entertainment/media and philanthropy interests. Aside from the Listen Up Foundation which he helped to establish a couple of decades previous, he also launched We Are The Future project – which provides refuge, support and creative sanctuary for children affected by poverty and war. Being an avid supporter and endorser of many charities (NAACP – National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, Peace Games and the Mayback Foundation), he was also a vociferous and passionate spokesperson when campaigning for more funding and backing for the arts as he always believed that that was one of the most crucial lifebloods to ensure health, wellbeing and a sense of self-worth and prosperity can flourish in otherwise disadvantaged communities.
Jones’ own mantra in life was always to follow one’s instincts and to never be afraid of taking chances or risks. Nothing was impossible: if there was a way to get around a problem, then he would pursue all avenues possible to achieve that.
One of entertainment’s single greatest pragmatists, optimists and mentors, his life was indeed a very fortuitous and exceptional one and his immense impact on the world of music and entertainment cannot ever be underestimated. His passing leaves a great big gaping void where the indomitable spirit of one man’s QWEST for enterprise and perpetual betterment will be difficult to fill.
Quincy Delight Jones 14/3/1933 – 3/11/2024 : a true visionary, an exceptional talent, and the biggest daddy of them all.
Rest In Power, Dude.
words by Martin Gray
other articles by Martin Gray here
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