Musicians - Quincy Jones

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	Musicians - Quincy Jones

Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (born March 14, 1933) is an American music impresario, musical arranger, record producer, and film composer.

During 50 years in the entertainment industry Jones' work has earned him more than 70 Grammy Award nominations, more than 25 Grammy Awards, and a Grammy Legends Award in 1991. He is best known as the producer of two of the top-selling records of all time: the album Thriller, by pop music artist Michael Jackson, and the charity song “We Are the World”.

Career

Born on March 14, 1933 in Chicago, Illinois, Jones discovered music in grade school and took up the trumpet. When he was 10, his family moved to Bremerton, Washington, where Jones became friends with a young Ray Charles, who later taught Jones braille. The two boys formed a combo and played local weddings and the jazz clubs in what is now known as the Pioneer Square district of Seattle.

In 1951, at the age of 18, Jones won a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music in Boston. However, he abandoned his studies when he received an offer to tour as a trumpeter with the legendary bandleader Lionel Hampton. Whilst Jones was on the road with Hampton, he displayed an unusual gift for arranging songs. Jones relocated to New York City, where he received a number of freelance commissions arranging songs for artists like Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Gene Krupa and his old friend Ray Charles.

In 1956, Jones toured again as a trumpeter and musical director of the Dizzy Gillespie Band on a tour of the Middle East and South America sponsored by the United States State Department, Upon his return to the United States, Jones got a contract from ABC Paramount Records and commenced his recording career as the leader of his own band.

Jones moved to Paris, France in 1957. He studied music composition and theory with Nadia Boulanger and Olivier Messiaen. He also performed at the Paris Olympia. Jones became music director at Barclay Disques, the French distributor for Mercury Records and during the 1950s, Jones successfully toured throughout Europe with a number of jazz orchestras. He formed his own big band and organized a tour of North America and Europe. Though the tour was a critical success, poor budget planing made it an economic distaster and the fallout left Jones in a financial crisis. Irving Green, head of Mercury Records, got Jones back on his feet with a loan and a new job as the musical director of the company's New York division. In 1964, Jones was promoted to vice-president of the company, thus becoming the first African American to hold such a position. 1964 also saw Jones break down another social barrier: at the invitation of film director Sidney Lumet he began composing the first of the 33 major motion scores. The result was the legendary score for The Pawnbroker.

With Hollywood beckoning, Jones resigned from Mercury Records and moved to Los Angeles to compose film scores full time. Some of his most celebrated composistions were for the films; Walk, Don't Run, In Cold Blood, In The Heat of the Night, Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice, Cactus Flower and The Getaway. He also scored for television, including the shows Ironside, Sanford and Son and The Bill Cosby Show.

In the 1960s, Jones shone as a cross-genre songwriter and record producer. His extraordinary ability to fuse sound from various musical strata created a spectacular trademark sound. For the next thirty years of his career he would change to direction of modern music with the songs he creates for some of the most important artists of the era, including Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, The Brothers Johnson, Dinah Washington and, of course, Michael Jackson. However, Jones' solo recordings never failed to be sonic landmarks. They included Walking in Space, Gula Materi, Smackwater Jack and Ndeda, You've Got It Bad, Girl, Body Heat, Mellow Madness, I Heard That and The Dude. His work garnered endless accolades and award nominations from his peers.

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