UNSCRIPTED: “QUINCY JONES” Remembering a Musical Legend...
Unscripted
By Keith Edmonds
FWIS Contributing Writer
A TITAN in the music and entertainment industry quietly passed last month. Quincy Jones, (known to many as ‘Q,’) passed on November 3, 2024, from pancreatic cancer leaving a gaping hole in the hearts of many of us that enjoyed his gifts that he shared with the world. Jones was well-respected and often spoken of in tones of reverence as a record producer, songwriter, composer, arranger, and performer through his seven decades in the music business. His involvement in numerous musical projects and with legendary performers led to him racking up 80 Grammy nominations and 28 wins, which to me is absolutely astounding! Jones presented himself as a quiet and suave man and carried himself in such a way that he commanded ANY room that he entered! His career however was anything but quiet! To list them all would take too much time away from recognizing his historic work in the music industry and the footprints that he leaves behind, so I’d rather talk about his influence on developing and even launching the careers of some of music’s biggest and brightest stars!
Born in 1933 on Chicago’s south side, Jones began his life in music as a jazz trumpeter and quickly became friends with another legend Ray Charles when both were still in their teens. He soon began composing and arranging, including 1962's classic "Soul Bossa Nova" and Lesley Gore's hit "It's My Party,". With a career that covered more than 70 years, Jones worked with seemingly everyone in all genres of music, including jazz legends like Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington, and rappers such as Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg.
In 1968, Jones became the first African American to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "The Eyes of Love" (from the film Banning 1967). And was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score for his work on the 1967 film In Cold Blood, making him the first African American to be nominated twice in the same year. Jones became the first African American to be the musical director and conductor of the Academy Awards in 1971 and was the first African American to receive the academy's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1995.
His work has stood the test of time, but he may be most remembered for a three-album run with King of Pop, Michael Jackson, that included the best selling record of all time, 1982's "Thriller," along with "Off the Wall" and "Bad". For me, I remember him being a part of the “We Are the World project in 1985 featuring Stevie, Wonder, Diana Ross, Tina Turner, Paul Simon, Kenny Rogers, Michael Jackson (and many others) that won the Grammy for Record of the Year and had many of us singing it in our cars, at work, or in schools nationwide even to this day! I always enjoyed the huge hit, "The Secret Garden (Sweet Seduction Suite)" Jones produced featuring R&B singers Al B. Sure, James Ingram, El DeBarge and Barry White. It was released as a single from Jones album, Back on the Block (1989) it was in a word Smooth....
Jones rose to unprecedented heights of show business, by becoming one of the first Black executives to “make it big” in Hollywood, and he is just one of 27 members to become a member of the EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony winner). Jones composed dozens of memorable soundtracks including the Color Purple (a film that he directed) and is known for his strong social activism and support of Dr. Martin Luther King in the early 1960’s. Jones was also known for his strong opinions in regard to, religion, hunger, and poverty in our country and was recognized by President Biden as “ A great unifier, who believed deeply in the healing power of music to restore hope and uplift those suffering from the ills of society”.
Jones’ long illustrious life allows fans to understand what life was like during segregation and how he was able to break though the ignorance of the music industry during and after the Jim Crow era. Jones recalled instances in which the bands he was a part of would have their white driver go in and get food for the van when they played (especially in racist states). Jones said during an interview, “In North Carolina and South Carolina, they’d have $2.50- $3.50 general admission for the Black people, while white spectators only paid $1.50. People that never “lived it” have no idea what I’m talking about and how fortunate many of us were to have survived that era”...
Jones fingerprints are on so much of our pop culture that I would dare say we’ll never see another more influential person in the music industry. He was a musical GENIUS and shaped the music culture that we see today! Jones understood where he came from and truly told the African American story through his music. This quote (taken from the Smithsonian) sums it up best: “He’s always looking down and putting all the pieces together to create something new. So, in some ways, he’s orchestrated his entire career. That’s one of his God-given talents. He was able to use that as an executive, as a producer, as working with artists, bringing out the best of them and helping them find their own voices. And that is probably the one thing that distinguishes him aside from everything else. He nurtured people. He worked with people creatively, and he’s always just orchestrating and making things happen on various levels. That’s his superpower.” Quincy Jones, a Life well lived passed at age 91.