Quincy Jones

 

[1933 -] A living legend in the history of jazz, Quincy Jones had a successful career both in classic jazz as in the variations that the genre would suffer and in his association with pop music. The result of his work as producer to Ray Charles, George Benson and Michael Jackson are emblematic of their respective eras. Jones also extended its activities to management (for labels Quincy Jones Productions, Qwest) and still risking as film production. The Color Purple is one of his most successful ventures.

 

Quincy Jones began music studies in adolescence, at twelve learned trumpet and singing. Began his professional career in 1951 following the band of vibraphonist Lionel Hampton where, in addition to playing trumpet alongside Art Farmer and Clifford Brown, served as pianist and arranger. In 1957 he moved to Paris, where he strengthened his musical studies on classical with Nadia Boulanger. In this period he worked as an arranger for the Barclay label in songs of Jacques Brel and Charles Aznavour. In the mid-50 he was already a known name in the jazz market having arranged and conducted for big stars like Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie, Cannonball Adderley, Billy Eckstine and Ray Charles. In 1965 he wrote his first soundtrack for The Pawnbroker, directed by Sidney Lumet, followed by the thriller Mirage (Mirage 1965), in the two works already seeking to expand the jazz idiom to dramatically expressive effect.

 

In the next years did lots of important soundtracks that developed the use of jazz as soundtrack – in sequence to what Elmer Bernstein and Johnny Mandel had done in the previous decade. The following work is remarkable: Walk Do not Run (1967), In The Heat of the Night (1967), In Cold Blood (1967), Cactus Flower (1969), The Italian Job (1969), Dollars (1971), The Hot Rock (1972) and The Getaway (1972). His music for films such as The Split (1968), The Lost Man (1969) and They Call Me Mr. Tibbs (1970), were important in the birth of black power movies. In 1977, Jones would do the music for the award-winning TV series Roots and the musical The Wiz, the black version of the Wizard of Oz. Received an Oscar for the soundtrack of The Color Purple in 1984. In the 80s oriented activities to the pop music market producing for many rythmn'nblues artists such as Chaka Khan, Rufus Thomas, and Michael Jackson.