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This 3-CD, 73-track set presents, for the first time ev...)
This 3-CD, 73-track set presents, for the first time ever on a single edition, all existing sessions featuring the singing of Dinah Washington with bands conducted by Quincy Jones, who was also responsible for most of the arrangements on these dates. Ranging from 1955 to 1961, the sessions include the complete contents of the classic albums For Those in Love (Emarcy MG-36011), I Wanna Be Loved (Mercury SR-60729), and The Swingin Miss D (EmArcy MG-36104), along with various other tunes issued on singles. Contained here are her unforgettable renditions of Mad About the Boy, Blue Gardenia and Ill Close My Eyes (the latter two were selected by Clint Eastwood for the soundtrack to his movie The Bridges of Madison County).
The Complete Quincy Jones: My Journey & Passions: Photos, Letters, Memories & More from Qs Personal Collection
(Everything you love about American popular culture is Qui...)
Everything you love about American popular culture is Quincy Jones. As an artist and impresario Quincy Jones has been the creative catalyst for over 60 years of American cultural phenomena orchestrating the sounds of Frank Sinatra, setting the ambiance for Steven Spielberg, cultivating the talent of Michael Jackson, and introducing to the world Oprah Winfrey and Will Smith - to name a few. The Complete Quincy Jones examines the diverse virtuosity of Quincy Jones, celebrating his prolific contribution to American art and culture. Comprised of personal interviews and recollections with Jones, this collection peers behind the veil of celebrity, with extraordinary access to his creative inspirations and labors. Through private notebooks, correspondence, and photographs Jones offers unprecedented introspection into the depths of his creativity and the histories of his ventures. From the volumes of his memorabilia, Jones emerges as a contemplative and dynamic maestro, thriving on intuition and ceaselessly pursuing the soul of his art.
(Quincy took time out from producing to record this star-s...)
Quincy took time out from producing to record this star-studded LP in '73. Stevie Wonder, George Duke, Hubert Laws, Toots Thielemans and Valerie Simpson join in as he tackles everything from Superstition to his own Sanford & Son theme. CD debut!
Quincy Delightt Jones Jr. , also known as "Q", is an American record producer, actor, conductor, arranger, composer, musician, television producer, film producer, instrumentalist, magazine founder, entertainment company executive, and humanitarian.
Background
Jones was born in 1933, on the South Side of Chicago, to Sarah Frances (née Wells) (1903–1999) and Quincy Delightt Jones Sr (1895–1971). The elder Jones was a semi-pro baseball player and carpenter from Kentucky; his paternal grandmother was an ex-slave in Louisville. They had gone to Chicago as part of the Great Migration out of the S. Sarah was a bank officer and apartment complex manager. Jones later discovered that his paternal grandfather, Jones, was Welsh. Quincy had a younger brother, Lloyd, who later became an engineer for the Seattle television station KOMO-TV.
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. His birth mother, Sarah Jones, was in and out of mental health facilities, and it wasn't until his adult life that Quincy was able to enjoy a close relationship with her. When Jones was 10 years old his family moved to Bremerton, Washington. The Seattle suburb was alive with World War II sailors on their way to the Pacific; the nightlife and its music were the backdrop for Quincy's early teens. Three years later he met a 15-year-old musician named Ray Charles. The two formed a combo and played in local clubs and weddings, and soon Jones was composing and arranging for the group.
Education
After high school and a scholarship at Boston's Berklee College of Music, Quincy was introduced to the life of a musician on the road, a road which started in New York and went around the world.
He studied with Nadia Boulanger and Olivier Messiaen, was musical director at Barclay Disques, wrote for Harry Arnold's Swedish All-Stars in Stockholm, and directed the music for Harold Arlen's production "Free and Easy, " which toured Europe for three months, ending in early 1960.
Career
His first foray into Hollywood-another crossing of a racial barrier-came when he composed the score for The Pawnbroker, a 1965 film by Sidney Lumet. Two films released in 1967 featured music by Jones: In Cold Blood and In the Heat of the Night. Both scores won enough votes to be nominated for Academy Awards. Jones was advised not to "compete with himself, " so he went with In Cold Blood and it was the other film that ended up winning the Oscars. It didn't stop him from going on to write the music for over 52 films. Television, as well, has featured the music of Quincy Jones, starting in 1971 with theme songs for "Ironside, " "Sanford and Son, " and "The Bill Cosby Show" (the first one).
In 1973 Jones co-produced "Duke Ellington, We Love You Madly, " a special for CBS, featuring Peggy Lee, Aretha Franklin, Count Basie, Joe Williams, Sarah Vaughan, and a 48-piece orchestra conducted by Jones. The special was a project of the Institute for Black American Music, a foundation formed by Jones, Isaac Hayes, Roberta Flack, and other musicians with the intention of promoting recognition of the African American contribution to American music. Jones also wrote the score for the widely acclaimed 1977 television mini-series "Roots. "
Burned out from producing film score after film score, Jones stopped working for Hollywood in 1973 to explore his own pop music career as a vocalist. His singing debut was with Valerie Simpson on an album called You've Got It Bad, Girl. The title song from the album stayed at the top of the charts for most of the summer of 1973. Jones's next album was an even bigger hit. Body Heat, released in the summer of 1974, contained the hit songs "Soul Saga, " "Everything Must Change, " and "If I Ever Lose This Heaven. " The album remained within the top five on the charts for over six months and sold over a million copies.
In 1974 Jones suffered two aneurysms two months apart. He nearly died, but after a six-month recuperation he was back at work, touring and recording with a 15-member band. Mellow Madness was the first album by the new band, which included songs by George and Louis Johnson, Otis Smith, and Stevie Wonder ("My Cherie Amour"). His 1980 album, The Dude, featured a host of talent directed by Jones, earned 12 Grammy nominations, and won five awards. At the same time The Dude was released, Jones signed a deal with Warner Brothers Records creating his own label, Quest. It took Jones almost ten years to make his next album, Back on the Block. During that time he was focused on producing hit albums for other artists such as Donna Summer, Frank Sinatra, and James Ingram.
In 1983 Michael Jackson recorded a Quincy Jones production, and at 40 million copies Thriller is still the best-selling album of all time. Quincy Jones also has the best-selling single of all time to his credit: the all-star choir on "We Are the World. " Another triumph for Jones in the mid-19806 was his production of The Color Purple, the film adaptation of Alice Walker's novel, which featured the Oscar-nominated, debut film performance of Oprah Winfrey. Jones's projects in the early 1996 included continuing work on an ongoing, mammoth project for which he'd been gathering material for decades, "The Evolution of Black Music. "
He was back in television, as well, with the Quincy Jones Entertainment Company producing the NBC situation comedy "Fresh Prince of Bel Air, " as well as a weekly syndicated talk show hosted by Jones's friend the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Quincy Jones was also working on a film biography of the Black Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. The film was a co-production with Soviet filmmakers. Quincy Jones Broadcasting and Time Warner bought a New Orleans television station, WNOL, which Jones was to oversee. The personal life of Quincy Jones was strained because of the pace of his professional endeavors.
The 1990 documentary "Listen Up: The Lives of Quincy Jones, " produced by Courtney Sale Ross, contains poignant scenes in which Quincy confronts his difficult childhood, his mentally ill mother, and his strained past with his children. The film also contains testimonials from Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Michael Jackson, Miles Davis, Stephen Spielberg, Barbara Streisand, Oprah Winfrey, Ray Charles, Billy Eckstine, and others. They talk about an obsessed genius, a workaholic, and a man with a creative brilliance that has touched virtually every facet of popular entertainment since 1950.
In 1993 Jones announced that he was starting a magazine called Vibe. The magazine has been well received as an African American music journal. The album Jones released in 1995 was Q's Jook Joint.
The album combined the talents of many of Quincy Jones's counterparts such as Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Sonny Bono and many others. The album was a celebration of his 50 years within the music industry. In 1996 Jones released an instrumental album entitled Cocktail Mix.
The Seattle suburb was alive with World War II sailors on their way to the Pacific; the nightlife and its music were the backdrop for Quincy's early teens.
Views
Quotations:
At the age of 19, Jones traveled with jazz bandleader Lionel Hampton to Europe—and he has said that his European tour with Hampton turned him upside down, altering his view of racism in the US: "It gave you some sense of perspective of past, present and future. It took the myopic conflict between just black and white in the United States and put it on another level because you saw the turmoil between the Armenians and the Turks, and the Cypriots and the Greeks, and the Swedes and the Danes, and the Koreans and the Japanese. Everybody had these hassles, and you saw it was a basic part of human nature, these conflicts. It opened my soul, it opened my mind. "
Quincy was quoted saying: "Frank Sinatra took me to a whole new planet. 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. "
Membership
In 2001, Jones became an honorary member of the board of directors of The Jazz Foundation of America.
Connections
He was married and divorced three times (his latest wife was actress Peggy Lipton), and his six children have only recently been able to spend time with and come to know their father.