Quincy Jones

• 1. Introduction

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  Quincy Jones taped a sign to the entrance of a recording studio in 1985, and it read "Check Your Ego at the Door." Behind that door waited most of the major American recording artists of the day. Jones needed every one of them to work as part of a group, not as a star. The man who pulled it off was born on the 14th of March 1933 on the South Side of Chicago. He died on the 3rd of November 2024, at the age of 91. In between, he worked as a trumpeter, arranger, composer, conductor, bandleader, record executive and film and television producer. His seven-decade career brought dozens of honors, including 28 Grammy Awards. This documentary asks how a boy from Chicago ended up with the power to gather the biggest names in American music in one room. It asks why a celebrated band of his own could not pay its way. And it asks what threatened his life while his career was still climbing.

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• 2. Chicago To Seattle

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  Quincy Delight Jones Jr. was born on the 14th of March 1933 on the South Side of Chicago, the elder of two sons. His mother, Sara Frances, worked as a bank officer and apartment complex manager. His father, Quincy Delight Jones, came from Charleston, South Carolina, and was a semi-professional baseball player and carpenter. The family had arrived in Chicago during the Great Migration. Jones's younger brother, Lloyd, later worked as an engineer for the Seattle television station KOMO-TV until his death in 1998.

  A 2006 PBS program called African American Lives sent genealogists back into Jones's family history and tested his DNA. The results showed he was mostly African, with 34% European ancestry on both sides of his family. His father's line included English, French, Italian and Welsh ancestry. His mother's side traced to West and Central African descent, specifically the Tikar people of Cameroon. Among his ancestors was Elizabeth Washington Lewis, a sister of president George Washington. Jones had already learned that his paternal grandmother was a formerly enslaved woman from Louisville and that his paternal grandfather was Welsh.

  Lucy Jackson, the next-door neighbor, played stride piano, and a five-or-six-year-old Jones listened through the walls. Jackson recalled that after he heard her one day, she could not get him off her piano. His mother also shaped his ear, because she always sang religious songs.

  During Jones's childhood, his mother had a schizophrenic breakdown and was sent to a mental institution. His father divorced her and married Elvera Jones, who already had three children named Waymond, Theresa and Katherine. Elvera and Quincy Sr. had three more together: Jeanette, Margie and Richard. In 1943 the family moved to Sinclair Park, a segregated community in Bremerton, Washington. There his father took a wartime job at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.

  Garfield High School in Seattle became Jones's next stage after the war. There he developed his skills as a trumpeter and arranger. His classmate Charles Taylor played saxophone, and Taylor's mother, Evelyn Bundy, was one of Seattle's first society jazz bandleaders. At the age of fourteen, Jones joined Taylor's group. They played the Washington Social Club, the Black Elks Club and venues all over the Northwest, backing Billie Holiday and Billy Eckstine. In those years he also met a 16-year-old from Florida who went by R.C. Robinson. The unknown teenager played bebop piano and alto sax and sang like Nat Cole. The world would later know him as Ray Charles.

  Jones credited his father's work ethic with giving him the means to proceed, and his loving nature with holding the family together. The elder Jones kept a 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."

  A scholarship took Jones to Seattle University in 1951. After one semester he transferred to what is now the Berklee College of Music in Boston, on another scholarship. He played at Izzy Ort's Bar & Grille with Bunny Campbell and Preston Sandiford, whom he cited as important influences. A touring orchestra was about to give him a very different classroom.

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• 3. Trumpet To Paris

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  In 1953, at age 20, Jones toured Europe with the orchestra of bandleader Lionel Hampton, and the trip changed how he saw racism in the United States. He explained that it lifted the conflict between black and white in America onto another level. Abroad he saw turmoil between Armenians and Turks, between Cypriots and Greeks, and between Koreans and Japanese. "Everybody had these hassles, and you saw it was a basic part of human nature, these conflicts," he said. "It opened my soul; it opened my mind."

  Jones left the Hampton band in 1954 and settled in New York, where he started writing "for anyone who would pay." In early 1956 he took a temporary job at the CBS program Stage Show, hosted by Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey. The show was broadcast live from Studio 50 in New York City, known today as the Ed Sullivan Theater. Jones played second trumpet in the studio band that backed 21-year-old Elvis Presley in his first six television appearances. During that run Presley sang "Heartbreak Hotel," which became his first No. 1 record and the Billboard magazine Pop Record of the year.

  Dizzy Gillespie soon took Jones on as trumpeter and musical director for a tour of the Middle East and South America. The United States Information Agency sponsored the trip. After returning, Jones signed a contract with ABC-Paramount and began recording as the leader of his own band. In 1957 he moved to Paris, where he studied composition and theory with Nadia Boulanger and Olivier Messiaen. He performed at the Paris Olympia and became music director at Barclay, a French record company that licensed Mercury's records in France.

  The Jones Boys grew out of Harold Arlen's jazz musical Free and Easy, for which Jones served as musical director. With musicians from the Arlen show, he formed a big band of eighteen players. It included double bass player Eddie Jones and trumpeter Reunald Jones, and none of the three men were related. The band toured North America and Europe to enthusiastic audiences and sparkling reviews. The earnings could not support an orchestra that size, though. Poor budget planning turned the venture into an economic disaster, and the band dissolved. That left Jones in a financial crisis. "We had the best jazz band on the planet, and yet we were literally starving," he said. Irving Green, head of Mercury, helped with a personal loan and a job as musical director of the company's New York division. Mercury would soon give him a much bigger title.

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• 4. Sinatra And Gore

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  In 1961, Jones was promoted to vice-president of Mercury, the first African American to hold that position. Two years later he had his first number 1 record, "It's My Party" by Lesley Gore. It also reached number 8 in the United Kingdom. Jones went on to produce all four of Gore's million-selling singles of the early and mid-1960s. Her follow-up "Judy's Turn to Cry" and the song "She's a Fool" each reached number 5 in the United States in 1963. "You Don't Own Me" rose to number 2 for four weeks in 1964. He kept producing for Gore until 1966, with hits such as "Maybe I Know" and "Sunshine, Lollipops And Rainbows." In 1975 he reunited with her for the critically acclaimed album Love Me By Name, released on A&M Records. That same year he founded Qwest Productions, where he arranged and produced successful albums by Frank Sinatra and others.

  The 1960s also made Jones a sought-after arranger. He arranged for Billy Eckstine, Ella Fitzgerald, Shirley Horn, Peggy Lee, Nana Mouskouri, Sarah Vaughan and Dinah Washington. His own solo recordings included Walking in Space, Gula Matari and Smackwater Jack.

  Princess Grace invited Jones in 1958 to arrange a benefit concert at the Monaco Sporting Club. That evening marked his first work with Frank Sinatra. Six years later, Sinatra hired him to arrange and conduct It Might as Well Be Swing (1964), Sinatra's second album with jazz bandleader Count Basie. Jones then conducted and arranged Sinatra at the Sands (1966), a live album with the Basie band. In June 1965 he led the Basie orchestra in St. Louis, Missouri, for a benefit for Dismas House. Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin and Johnny Carson all performed. The fund-raiser was broadcast to movie theaters around the country and eventually released on VHS. On the 16th of October 1965, Jones was arranger and conductor again when Sinatra and Basie appeared on the television variety show The Hollywood Palace. In 1984 the two teamed up once more for the album L.A. Is My Lady.

  "Frank Sinatra took me to a whole new planet," Jones said. "I worked with him until he passed away in '98. He left me his ring. I never take it off. Now, when I go to Sicily, I don't need a passport. I just flash my ring."

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• 5. Scores And Themes

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  Director Sidney Lumet invited Jones to compose the music for The Pawnbroker, and it became the first of his nearly 40 major motion picture scores. Its success led Jones to leave Mercury and move to Los Angeles. In 1965 he scored Mirage and The Slender Thread, and after that he was in constant demand as a composer. Over the next seven years his credits included The Deadly Affair, In Cold Blood, In the Heat of the Night, The Italian Job, Cactus Flower, The Out-of-Towners, The Anderson Tapes and The Getaway.

  The theme to the sitcom Sanford and Son came from Jones, who titled it "The Streetbeater." The show starred his close friend Redd Foxx. Jones also wrote themes for Ironside, Banacek, The Bill Cosby Show and the game show Now You See It. He composed the music for the opening episode of Roots as well. That 1977 miniseries earned him the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series.

  A tune from 1962 called "Soul Bossa Nova" came from the album Big Band Bossa Nova. In 1997 it became the theme for the spy comedy Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.

  The 1968 Academy Award nominations made Jones the first African American nominated for Best Original Song, for "The Eyes of Love" from the film Banning. The same year he was nominated for Best Original Score for In Cold Blood. That made him the first African American nominated twice in the same year. In 1971 he became the first African American to serve as musical director and conductor of the Academy Awards. Back in the studio, a 1978 film musical was waiting, and one of its stars was about to ask him for a favor.

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• 6. The Eighties Peak

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  The Wiz, the 1978 musical adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, starred Michael Jackson and Diana Ross, and Jones produced its soundtrack. While working on it, Jackson asked Jones to recommend producers for his upcoming solo album. Jones offered some names, then offered to produce the record himself, and Jackson accepted. Off the Wall (1979) sold about 20 million copies and made Jones the most powerful record producer in the industry. Thriller (1982) sold 70 million copies and became the highest-selling album of all time. The rise of MTV and of music videos as promotional tools also contributed to its sales. Bad (1987) sold 35 million copies and was the last time the two worked together. Audio interviews with Jones appear in the 2001 special editions of all three albums.

  Jones's own 1981 album The Dude yielded "Ai No Corrida," a remake of a song by Chaz Jankel. It also produced "Just Once" and "One Hundred Ways," both sung by James Ingram.

  The Color Purple, in 1985, marked Jones's debut as a film producer. The film received 11 Oscar nominations that year, including one for Jones's score. Only Jones, Thomas Newman and Alan Silvestri, besides John Williams, have written scores for a theatrical feature directed by Steven Spielberg. Through this picture, Jones is also credited with introducing Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey to film audiences around the world.

  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. They recorded "We Are the World," which Jones produced and conducted to raise money for victims of famine in Ethiopia. He set a dress code too. "We don't want to make a hunger record in tuxedos," he said, so everyone wore casual clothing in the studio.

  In a 2002 interview, Jackson was asked whether he would work with Jones again, and he suggested he might. In 2007, when NME put the same question to Jones, he answered: "Man, please! We already did that. I have talked to him about working with him again but I've got too much to do. I've got 900 products, I'm 74 years old." Jackson died on the 25th of June 2009. Jones said the music they made together on Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad "is played in every corner of the world." He added: "I've lost my little brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him."

  In October 2013, the BBC and The Hollywood Reporter said Jones planned to sue Jackson's estate for $10 million. He said MJJ Productions, a song company managed by Jackson's estate and Sony Music Entertainment, improperly re-edited songs to deprive him of royalties and production fees. The songs he produced for Jackson had been used in the film This Is It, and Jones believed he should have received a producer credit.

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• 7. Empire And Encores

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  In 1986, Jones started Qwest Entertainment to produce theatrical feature films through Qwest Film and Television. He also launched a home video label, Qwest Home Video, to manage the studio's titles. The older Qwest Records, Quincy Jones Productions and Qwest Music Publishing kept operating.

  Quincy Jones Entertainment began in 1990, when Quincy Jones Productions joined with Time Warner. The company signed a 10-picture deal with Warner Bros. and a two-series deal with NBC Productions. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Will Smith's first acting credit, began that same year. In the House aired on NBC and UPN from 1995 to 1999. Jones also produced The Jenny Jones Show with Telepictures Productions from 1994 to 1997. He produced the sketch comedy show Mad TV for FOX as well, and it ran for 14 seasons. In the early 1990s he started a huge, ongoing project called The Evolution of Black Music. His company also began a weekly talk show hosted by his friend Reverend Jesse Jackson. In 1993, Jones and David Salzman produced the concert An American Reunion, a celebration of Bill Clinton's inauguration. That year they renamed the company Quincy Jones/David Salzman Entertainment.

  On the 10th of February 1990, Jones hosted Saturday Night Live in the show's 15th season. The episode had 10 musical guests, the most any SNL episode has had. They included Tevin Campbell, Kool Moe Dee, Big Daddy Kane, Al Jarreau and Take 6. The SNL Band played Dizzy Gillespie's "Manteca" under Jones's baton. In a recurring sketch, The Bob Waltman Special, he impersonated Marion Barry, the former mayor of Washington, D.C.

  In 1991, Miles Davis finally said yes. Since the late 1970s, Jones had tried to persuade Davis to revive the music he recorded on several classic albums of the 1950s, arranged by Gil Evans. Davis always refused, citing a desire to avoid revisiting the past. Despite having pneumonia, he agreed to perform it at the Montreux Jazz Festival. The recording, Miles & Quincy Live at Montreux, was his last album. Davis died several months afterward.

  Jones appeared in the 1999 Walt Disney Pictures animated film Fantasia 2000, introducing the set piece of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. In 2002 he made a cameo appearance as himself in Austin Powers in Goldmember. In July 2007, he partnered with Wizzard Media to start the Quincy Jones Video Podcast. Its first episode showed him in the studio producing "I Knew I Loved You" for Celine Dion. In 2010, he and brand strategist Chris Vance co-founded Playground Sessions, a software developer that teaches piano through interactive videos. In 2017, he and French producer Reza Ackbaraly started Qwest TV, billed as the world's first subscription video-on-demand service for jazz and eclectic music.

  The 2014 documentary Keep on Keepin' On followed his friend Clark Terry, the jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player. In the film, Terry introduces Jones to his protégé Justin Kauflin, whom Jones then signed to his band and label. In 2013 Jones had produced Emily Bear's album Diversity, and he went on to produce albums for Nikki Yanofsky, Andreas Varady and others. He also became a mentor to Jacob Collier. In January 2022, he appeared on the Weeknd's album Dawn FM, delivering a monolog in the sixth track, "A Tale by Quincy."

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• 8. Beyond The Studio

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  Jones's activism began in the 1960s with his support of Martin Luther King Jr. He was a founder of the Institute for Black American Music, whose events aimed to raise money for a national library of African-American art and music. He also helped found the Black Arts Festival in Chicago. In the 1970s he formed the Quincy Jones Workshops at the Los Angeles Landmark Variety Arts Center. They taught inner-city youth musicianship, acting and songwriting. Alumni included Alton McClain and Mark Wilkins, who co-wrote the hit "Havin' a Love Attack" with Mandrill.

  Jones worked for many years with Bono of U2 on philanthropic causes. He founded the Quincy Jones Listen Up Foundation, which built more than 100 homes in South Africa. In 2004 he helped launch the We Are the Future project for children in poor and conflict-ridden areas. It opened with a concert in Rome in front of half a million people. In 2001 he became an honorary board member of the Jazz Foundation of America, which worked to save the homes and lives of elderly jazz and blues musicians, including survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

  On the 6th of January 2009, Jones appeared on NBC's Last Call with Carson Daly. Daly floated the idea that Jones should become the first minister of culture for the United States. Jones later said his next conversation with President Obama would be "to beg for a secretary of arts." An internet petition followed.

  In 1974, a life-threatening brain aneurysm forced Jones to reduce his workload. His family and friends believed he was dying, so they planned a memorial service for him. He attended it with his neurologist by his side, in case the excitement overwhelmed him. Richard Pryor, Marvin Gaye, Sarah Vaughan and Sidney Poitier were among the entertainers there. Jones had two brain surgeries. After the second, doctors warned him never to play the trumpet again, because a metal clip in his head could come free. He ignored the advice and went on tour in Japan. One night after playing, he felt a pain in his head, and doctors said the plate had nearly come loose. Jones never played the trumpet again.

  A bus hit the car Jones was riding in at age 14, on the way to a rodeo in Yakima. He said everyone in the car died except him, and the scene left him traumatized. He tried driving lessons a few years later but "just couldn't do it," and he never drove.

  On the 3rd of November 2024, Jones died at his home in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles at the age of 91. The cause was pancreatic cancer, and he is interred at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California. The honors had come steadily. He received the Grammy Legend Award in 1992 and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1995, the first African American to do so. The Kennedy Center Honors followed in 2001, and President Obama gave him the National Medal of Arts in 2011. In June 2024 came the Academy Honorary Award. His seven Oscar nominations tied him with sound designer Willie D. Burton as the second most Oscar-nominated African American. As a producer, he won a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical for the 2016 revival of The Color Purple. Time named him one of the most influential jazz musicians of the 20th century.

  President Joe Biden called him "a great unifier, who believed deeply in the healing power of music." Former President Barack Obama praised a career "paving the way for generations of Black executives to leave their mark on the entertainment business." His daughter Rashida wrote: "My dad was nocturnal his whole adult life. He kept 'jazz hours' starting in high school and never looked back." Japanese film composer Joe Hisaishi came up with his alias, written 久石 譲 and pronounced Hisaishi Jo, as a play on Jones's name.

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