Dead Quincy Jones, the man who started with jazz and 'invented' Michael Jackson
A trumpeter, arranger, composer and producer, he was the first African American to play a central role in the music business. He leaves at 91
3' min read
3' min read
There is an old saying, very popular among professional musicians: he who comes from jazz can do whatever he wants. The proof - we might add - is called Quincy Jones, that extraordinary piece of music history who is leaving now, at the age of 91, amidst the luxuries of his Bel Air home. Childhood companion of Ray Charles, trumpet player for Lionel Hampton, arranger for Count Basie, author of unforgettable soundtracks such as The Colour Purple (1985), producer of L.A. is my Lady's Frank Sinatra (1984) and above all of Michael Jackson, with whom he conceived the masterpiece Thriller (1982), musical organiser of the benefit experiment We are the World (1985), old Quincy was also the first black man to play a central role in the American, then global, music business. And, not to be left out, he recorded at least three seminal albums under his own name: Big Band Bossa Nova (1962), Smackwater Jack (1971) and The Dude (1981), three records that magnificently summarise his creative parabola between South American, funky and pop suggestions.
Twenty-eight Grammys and 500 million in assets
The list of awards he has received in his career fills 18 pages of his Q autobiography: 28 Grammys (out of 80 nominations), a lifetime achievement Oscar and an Emmy for Radici. He also received the French Legion of Honour and the Rodolfo Valentino Award from the Italian Republic. In 2001, Jones was named Kennedy Center Honoree for his contribution to American culture. "Despite all the Grammys, special awards and testimonials that maturity bestows, it will always be the values you carry within you - work, love and integrity - that take pride of place," he wrote in his autobiography. His work with Michael Jackson alone sold something like 130 million copies, bringing his personal fortune, at the time of his death, to around 500 million dollars.
The road, then the music
.Not bad for a guy who started 'from the bottom'. Born in Chicago in 1933, Quincy cited hymns sung at home by his mother as the first music he remembered. But childhood was a painful memory for him: 'There are two kinds of people: those who have caring parents or caretakers and those who do not. There is nothing in between,' he would say in an interview. His mother suffered from emotional instability and was eventually institutionalised, a loss that made the world seem 'meaningless' to little Quincy. He spent much of his time in Chicago on the streets, with gangs, stealing and fighting. And it is at this point in the story that music intervenes and, for the first time, saves his life.
The difference between music and the music business
.Having moved to Seattle with his father at the age of 10, he took up the piano, then the trumpet. Within a few years he was playing everywhere he could and befriended a young blind musician named Ray Charles who would become a lifelong friend. He was gifted enough to win a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, but abandoned his studies when Lionel Hampton invited him to tour with his band. Jones went on to work as a composer, conductor, arranger and freelance producer. As a teenager, he fronted Billie Holiday. By the time he was twenty-five, he was touring with his band. "We had the best jazz band on the planet, yet we were literally starving," he would say in an interview. "That's when I discovered that there was music and there was the music business. If I wanted to survive, I had to learn the difference between the two."
Michael Jackson and all the sounds you can imagine
.This was the start of a path that would see him working in Europe as a producer and arranger (in Italy he got his hands on Tony Renis' Lettera a Pinocchio), an executive at Mercury Records and the author of multiple soundtracks in Hollywood. History, in any case, changed it between the 1970s and 1980s, when he transformed Michael Jackson from teenage star to King of Pop, producing the Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982) and Bad (1987) trilogy, albums for which we could use countless adjectives, but especially one: ecumenical. Indeed, Jones' versatility and imagination were perfectly suited to Jacko's bursting talent. Legal entanglements aside, the result was evergreens such as Wanna be startin' somethin', Billie Jean or Beat It, where against all prejudicial discourse there was even metalhead Eddie Van Halen playing guitar. "Michael had the look and the voice, while I had all the sounds you could imagine," Quincy explained. We - more or less music fans that we may be - surely have at least one record in our house with Quincy Jones's name written in the credits.
