Quincey+Jones

Background ​ [|Ouincy Delight Jones], Jr., also known as Leigh Warren, was born on March 14, 1933 Chicago, Illinois. Today, he is a Musician, Conductor, Producer, Arranger, Composer and a film composer. His parents divorced soon after his younger brother, Lloyd, was born, and the Jones boys were raised by their father, a carpenter, and his new wife. She had three children of her own and three more with Quincy Jones, Sr. He is the oldest son of Sarah Frances (nee Wells), an apartment complex manager and bank executive who suffered from schizophrenia and Quincy Delight Jones Sr., was a semi-professional baseball player and carpenter. Jones discovereed music in grade school at Raymond Elementary school on Chicago's south side and took up the trumpet. When he was 10, his family (father and stepmother) moved to Bremerton, Washington, a suburb of seattle, and he attended [|Seattle's Garfield High School]. He then attended [|Somerset Academy]. He first fell in love with music when he was in elementary school. and tried nearly all the instruments in his school band before settling on the trumpet. While barely in his teens, Quincy befriended a local singer-pianist, only three years his senior. His name was Ray Charles. The two youths formed a combo, eventually landing small club and wedding gigs. and he attended Seattle's Garfield High School. He then attended Somerset Academy. In 1951, Jones won a scholarship to the Schillunger House (now [|Berklee College of Music]) in Boston, Massachusetts. However, he abandoned his studies when he received an offer to tour as a trumpeter with the bandleader [|Lionel Hampton]. While Jones was on the road with Hampton, he displayed a gift for arranging songs and he worked as a freelance arranger. Jones relocated to New York City, where he recieved a number of freelance commissions arranging songs for artists like [|Sarah Vaughan], [|Dinah Washington], [|Count Basie], Duke Ellington, Gene Krupa, and his close friend [|Ray Charles]. He has been married three times and he has seven Children.

Career

By 1956, Quincy Jones was performing as a trumpeter and music director with the [|Dizzy Gillespie band] on a State Department-sponsored tour of the Middle East and South America. Shortly after his return, he recorded his first albums as a bandleader in his own right for ABC Paramount Records. In 1957, Quincy settled in Paris where he studied composition and theory with Nadia Boulanger and Olivier Messiaen, and worked as a music director for Barclay Disques, Mercury Records' French distributor. As musical director of Harold Arlen's jazz musical //Free and Easy,// Quincy Jones took to the road again. The European tour closed in Paris in February, 1960. With musicians from the Arlen show - Eddie Jones and fellow trumpeter Reunald Jones, Jones formed his own big band called "The Jones Boys", with 18 artists -- plus their families -- in tow. European and American concerts met enthusiastic audiences and sparkling reviews, but concert earnings could not support a band of this size and the band dissolved, leaving its leader deeply in debt. Quoted in //Musician// Magazine, Jones said about his ordeal, " We had the best jazz band in the planet, and yet we were literally starving. That's when I discovered that there was //music// and there was the //music business//. If I were to survive, I would have to learn the difference between the two." The head of Mercury Records, Irving Green, helped resolve his financial difficulties with a personal loan and a new job as musical director for the label's company in New York. In 1964, he was named a vice-president of Mercury Records, the first African-American to hold such an executive position in a white-owned record company. In that same year, Quincy Jones turned his attention to another musical area that had long been closed to blacks -- the world of film scores. At the invitation of director Sidney Lumet, he composed the music for //The Pawnbroker.// It was the first of his 33 major motion picture scores. Following the success of //The Pawnbroker//, Jones left Mercury Records and moved to Los Angeles. After his score for //The Slender Thread,// starring Sidney Poitier, he was in constant demand as a composer. His film credits in the next five years included //Walk Don't Run, In Cold Blood, In the Heat of the Night, A Dandy in Aspic, MacKenna's Gold, Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice, The Lost Man, Cactus Flower,// and //The Getaway.// To date he has written scores for 33 major motion pictures. For television, Quincy wrote the theme music for //Ironside// (the first synthesizer-based TV theme song), //Sanford and Son,// and //[|The Bill Cosby Show].// Furthermore, he worked with [|Michael Jackson] and produced the song //Off The Wall// and //Thriller//. He also worked on the Bad Album. He also worked with [|Frank Sinatra].

Social Activism

The 1960s and '70s were also years of social activism for Quincy Jones. He was a major supporter of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Operation Breadbasket, an effort to promote economic development in the inner cities. After Dr. King's death, Quincy Jones served on the board of Rev. Jesse Jackson's People United to Save Humanity (PUSH). An ongoing concern throughout Jones's career has been to foster appreciation of African-American music and culture. To this end, he helped form IBAM (the Institute for Black American Music). Proceeds from IBAM events were donated toward the establishment of a national library of African-American art and music. He is also one of the founders of the annual Black Arts Festival in Chicago. In 1973, Quincy Jones co-produced the CBS television special //Duke Ellington, We Love You Madly.// This program featured such performers as Sarah Vaughan, Aretha Franklin, Peggy Lee, Count Basie and Joe Williams performing Ellington's music. Jones himself led the orchestra. He is the founder of the Quincy Jones //Listen Up Foundation//, a nonprofit that connects youth with technology, education, culture and music. In 2004, Jones helped launch the //We Are the Future (WAF) project//, which gives children in poor and conflict-ridden areas a chance to live their childhoods and develop a sense of hope. Jones support many other charities including the NAACP, GLAAD, Peace Games, AmfAR and The Maybach Foundation. he worked with the Jazz Foundation of America to save homes and the lives of people who survived the Hurricane Katrina. he also produced and helped re-write the //[|We Are The World]//for the people of Haiti. The secret to Quincy Jones' life is found elsewhere. His love is not composing but arranging. And the job of an arranger is to pull elements together. Instruments. Players. Sounds. Styles. Signature riffs. Notes, each one carefully selected and given its own color. Quincy Jones hasn't composed his life. Rather, he's arranged it. The fact that it was so successful is a bonus. He didn't arrange the success. He arranged the life itself. Day to day, year to year, opportunity to opportunity. He simply did what he loved and he was damn lucky to be great at it, and that people knew he was great at it.

Recognitions

He is worthy of recognition because he was the first black person to hold and executive position in a white-owned company. He has also produced one of the best album of all times //"Thriller"// which sold over 110 million copies. He is also the producer and conductor of the best charity song //"We are the World."// Jones and [|Bob Russell] became the first African-American to be nominated for an acdemy award. He is also the first African-American to be named musical director/conductor of the Academy Awards ceremony. At the 2008 BET awards, Quincy Jones was presented with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. He is an all-time most nominated Grammy artist with a total of 76 nominatons and 26 Awards, he recieved an Emmy Award and seven Oscar nominations. There is no doubt that he is a highly recognized and accomplished man. His story has given me many philosophies of life. One cannot be a successful person without working hard. Also, he inspired me to keep going when failure comes my way, to never relent and to be proud of who I am. His legacy is facing all the trumas he faced as a little child and still coming out on top of the world with extravagant success and accomplishment. Also, his visionary leadership in organizing the ‘We Are the World’ benefit and numerous other urgent causes serving the poor and the disadvantaged are an inspiration to everyone who believes in the Dream of [|Martin Luther King, Jr].”