Hard to imagine a more poignant application of the term “end of an era” than the loss of Quincy Jones, known affectionately as “Q”. The multilayered genius who left us on November 3rd has been shaping our musical sensibilities since the early 1950s. Jones was a self-taught trumpet player and pianist, a jazz bandleader, songwriter, arranger and a film and TV producer. He gifted us with loads of soundtracks and movie/television themes, including Roots, The Wiz, The Getaway, The Color Purple, and In Cold Blood, among others. The Austin Powers movies made spot-on use of his 1960 tune “Soul Bossa Nova.”
Not to mention that piece of funkified fabulousness, “The Streetbeater,” the theme to the classic sitcom Sanford & Son. He garnered 80 Grammy nominations (and 28 wins), collected a Tony Award, and was nominated for four Golden Globes and seven Oscars. But this is barely the tip of the iceberg.
Quincy Delight Jones, Jr. was born in 1933 on Chicago’s South Side. He had a beleaguered dad and a mom whose mental breakdowns often had her institutionalized, but her love of music was instilled in him. Little Q grew up wanting to be a gangster (“In the ‘30s, until I was 11, I wanted to be a gangster…you want to be what you see, and that’s all we ever saw.”) His hazardous surroundings got him stabbed in the hand as a young boy for having the audacity to be walking in another neighborhood; he also took an ice pick to the head.
His father moved the family to Washington, where a recreation center break-in with buddies at age 11 sealed his fate – in the best possible way. They stole into the kitchen, enjoyed some pie and Jones spotted a piano. In his memoir, Q explained, “I…paused, stared, and then tinkled on it for a moment. That’s where I began to find peace. I was 11. I knew this was it for me. Forever.”
Music in every conceivable aspect became Q’s destiny. But he also wanted to change his vibe from the inside out. He saw an opportunity when he became a respected trumpet player in his early teens, finding himself in the company, not of gangsters, but of “Black men that were dignified, proud…I said, that’s what I want to be.” He stepped up his style and solidified his beguiling radiant confidence, which became his lifelong trademark. He became forever friends with Ray Charles. Ray’s achingly beautiful “My Buddy (Love You Quincy),” sung to a tearful Q at the 2001 Kennedy Center Honors, was a moving encapsulation of their friendship.
Water seeks its own level and Jones found himself collaborating with the greatest musicians of mid-century: Frank Sinatra, Count Basie, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis, Jr., Aretha Franklin, Dean Martin. He broke a long-overdue color barrier and became an executive for Mercury Records; his first #1 hit was Lesley Gore’s 1963 track “It’s My Party.” A talent finder par excellence, Jones spotted 16-year-old Gore’s honeyed tones and vibrant presence. It brought household name status to them both.
From that point onward, Q was a global superstar, both as a public face filled with boundless energy and magnetism and a behind-the-scenes strategist and manager. He was known for his ability to spot talent in others and maximize their marketability.
Examples? Michael Jackson was a major celebrity from his Jackson 5 days when he performed in the 1978 The Wiz, but had not yet bloomed as an adult artist. Jones noted his professionalism and earnest on-set demeanor. When Jackson mentioned that he was looking for a manager, Jones offered up his own services. The yield was astounding. Their first album collaboration, 1979’s Off the Wall, sold over 20 million copies. A tight mix of pop, rock, disco and R&B, Jackson changed his image from youthful novelty act to suave sex symbol. Off the Wall was outdone by 1982’s stellar Thriller, which sold 70 million units and remains the best-selling LP of all time. 1987’s Bad sold an impressive 35+ million copies – an astonishing trifecta of success.
Q spotted a special quality in Oprah Winfrey, getting her cast in 1985’s The Color Purple and setting her on the road to superstardom. He did the same for Will Smith, upping his game from successful rapper to starring in his own hit series, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.
Quincy Jones’ love of music was matched by his love of humanity. Philanthropy plays a huge part in his legacy. He was an avid follower of Dr. King’s teachings and he lent his name, face, and presence to countless good works.
He co-helmed (with Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson) the 1985 “We Are the World” album and video. At his stated request, Icons of the era “checked their egos at the door” of the studio and sang their hearts out to benefit Ethiopian famine victims. It raised a staggering $80 million for the cause and yielded a powerful musical moment.
But a halo and wings are not called for, nor would Q wish to don them. He had a bit of the artist’s temperament and taste for debauchery, with heavy drinking for a time that landed him in the hospital in a temporary coma. He had three marriages that ended in divorce and seven children from five different women. He was a loving dad but an (admitted) less-than-stellar husband. Never without female companionship, though, he enjoyed a couple dozen simultaneous girlfriends well into his 80s.
In 1974 Jones faced a potentially fatal brain aneurysm, emerging from his anesthetic haze to learn that the surgery was successful…but they had found another aneurysm. This too was miraculously corrected, and he was told he could never play his beloved trumpet again, as the two neurological clips could come loose. He made one spirited, rebellious try on the horn but when he experienced head pain he finally desisted for all time.
Quincy Jones died peacefully at home at 91, surrounded by family. It was a stunning sweep of a life that brought the world all manner of music (he began to embrace hip-hop in his old age, as it put him in mind of bebop). He was a force for creativity, joy, and unfettered love.
The great Stevie Wonder eulogized him at length in writing, concluding with: “Quincy should [be] remembered as one of God’s greatest gifts to the world.” Stevie called it right. Q lived one gorgeous, messy miracle of a life.
-Ellen Fagan
Photo: Quincy Jones, 2014 (Canadian Film Centre from Toronto, Canada)
To steal a line from Shakespeare: “He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again.”
Beyond true in the case of Q. What a stunningly impactful life.