He had a hand in the creation of nearly 3,000 songs. He contributed his hand to more than 300 albums, a large part of which are timeless classics. And as an elderly man, he gave several legendary interviews that shed new light on several giants of pop culture and explained a few mysteries.
He was introduced to the salons by Ray Charles and Frank Sinatra, but it was his collaboration with Michael Jackson that made him a pop culture star. Quincy Jones shook many a dance floor and lived a total of some three full lives.
He died on November 3, 2024. He is survived by his "heavenly twin" - an actor as legendary as Jones in the pop world, Michael Caine. Both were born on March 14, 1933, at about the same time on two different continents. They learned of this unique fact quite by accident while working on the film InThe Italian Job (1969). "He was a beautiful and unique man. I was very lucky to have met him," commented the Briton.
The dark side of Hillary Clinton
Instrumentalist, composer, producer, conductor, mythomaniac, entertainer - this is probably just a slice of his resume. He produced the best-selling album in music history (Thriller) and a single (We Are The World). On the latter occasion, he also became known as the man who could tame the egos of music's biggest stars, who in January 1985 gathered at Lionel Richie's urging to fight poverty in Africa.
He had a hand in the creation of nearly 3,000 songs. He has contributed his hand to more than 300 albums, some of which (Off The Wall, Thriller, Blam!, Give Me The Night) are timeless classics. He is among a small group of EGOT award winners (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony). He has inspired a whole host of young artists who have creatively developed his patents in subsequent years. And as a senior citizen, he still gave several legendary interviews that shed new light on several giants of pop culture and explained a few mysteries.
Quincy Jones, of course, knew who killed Kennedy (Chicago mobster Sam Giacana). He also knew the dark side of Hillary Clinton, but here he preferred not to develop the details. He considered the Beatles the worst musicians in the world ("the fuckers couldn't do anything"). He was also said to have witnessed Marlon Brando's homosexual affairs with James Baldwin and Richard Pryor, among others.
Jackson's stolen patents
These are just a few of the anecdotes and quotes that conquered the internet in February 2018. All thanks to an interview with "New York Magazine" that could have been the start of something big. Who wouldn't want to hear more stories from legendary Hollywood parties? Especially since Jones has been to most of them. On the fateful day, he was even scheduled to be at the home of Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate....
Initially, it seemed that any sifting of possible facts from rumors would be an impossible task - after all, most of the stars slandered by Jones have long been dead. Besides, Quincy's daughters quickly curbed his creative urges and forced him to issue an ascetic statement in which he apologized for his "verbal screed" and almost pledged to live in silence.
The lifeline was thrown from the least expected direction. Jennifer Lee Pryor - widow of Richard Pryor - confirmed that her ex-husband had indeed had an affair with Brando. "It was the 1970s! Drugs were still good-especially methaqualone. And if you took enough cocaine you could fuck a radiator and send him flowers in the morning," Pryor was one of the few who did not resent Quincy.
Jones developed a closer relationship with her husband in the late 1970s. That's when he frequented the island owned by Marlon Brando. And around this time he also made the acquaintance of Michael Jackson, which turned out to be crucial for his future career. "Jacko" found himself at a turning point in his life - after breaking away from the Jackson Five, he was looking for his own path, and on his next solo album he wanted to present himself already as someone more than a singing child.
Quincy was only supposed to advise, but it soon became clear that Jackson could not find a better producer. Do you know the distinctive beginning of "Don't stop til' you get enough"? It's one of those tunes that, once heard, magically never falls out of your head again. Few people know, however, that there was not much to keep this symphonic theme tucked away somewhere deep in a drawer. The situation was changed by Jones' persistence, who in a critical situation was able to send Jackson himself to all the devils. Quincy simply didn't give a damn that the star player "wasn't feeling the groove" and wanted to get a more economical version.
Who was right? Just listen to the song, with which began the long march of this duo to the top of the charts. By the way, it was not without other controversies, as the matron of the Jackson family was shocked by the content of the song's lyrics. The first words written by Michael for the new opening of his solo career, according to the man himself, were simply about not giving up in the face of trial. The mother, hearing the lines about "dissolving like a hot candle," obviously thought of sex.
Raised as a Jehovah's Witness, the son, of course, vehemently denied it, but it is difficult to judge what might have been sitting in his head. What is known is that in the following years he annoyed Quincy mainly by hinting at ideas from other artists. "I hate to say it publicly, but Michael stole a lot of songs. The notes don't lie, man. He was as Machiavellian as it gets." - is another excerpt from Jones' 2018 interview.
Dating Ivanka
Tarnishing the sacred? "Very possibly," but the strong accusation aimed at Jackson didn't even make it to the top of the strongest quotes. Quincy seems to have known everyone and been everywhere - Leni Riefenstahl managed to tell him in detail about the cocaine craze of the Third Reich troops, and he met Pablo Picasso as an absinthe connoisseur.
Malcolm X was described as a drug dealer who sold Quincy one of his first plots of heroin. He was said to have first encountered the drug as a 15-year-old, with Ray Charles reportedly playing the role of introducing him to the world. "I was doing drugs for five months. Then I stopped, because I ended up in the hospital after falling high. If it wasn't for that I would have been doing drugs in New York with Charlie Parker. Bird was always stoned."
Jones died just before the results of the U.S. election were announced, but on Donald Trump he also had an educated opinion. "I used to hang out with him. He's a crazy fucker - a mentally limited megalomaniac and narcissist. I can't stand him." If Quincy is to be believed, his critical opinion of the famous businessman did not prevent him from dating his daughter.
In 2006, the then 72-year-old music industry veteran was said to have invited 26-year-old Ivanka Trump to dinner. It is worth noting that this boast was never debunked by America's first family. Can it be believed? The fact is that Quincy tied himself to white women most often. All three of his wives had this skin color, as well as Nastassja Kinski, with whom he was informally linked in the 1990s.
Not everyone liked it - in 1993 Jones was powerfully crawled in the media by Tupac Shakur. The young rapper declared him a "race traitor" and called his children "fucked up." He was then answered ruthlessly by teenage Rashida, who in the following years became Quincy's most famous child. Tupac eventually apologized, and in the following years became involved with Kidada Jones - another of the musician's daughters. At the time of the rapper's death, by the way, they were engaged, which directed some of the suspicion toward the would-be father-in-law. The reason? Not even the conflict from years ago but.... a hidden homosexual affair. Quincy acutely did not confirm these rumors.
Signet of Sinatra
Rappers of subsequent generations respected Jones, and Kendrick Lamar even took some advice from him. More than half a century of musical activity must be impressive - all the more so because the beginning came at a particularly difficult time. Quincy broke down racial segregation with the help of influential friends - a special role was played here by Frank Sinatra, who was one of the first to see the gleam in the black musician's eye and gradually entrusted him with more and more tasks.
It was Sinatra who first began to call out "Q" after him. Jones used to tell him that he could see music before he could even hear it. He absorbed knowledge like a sponge and had incredible hearing. Even before his 30th birthday, he was credited with producing the number one of the charts ("It's My Party" by Lesley Gore). He also became the first black vice president of a major record label (Mercury). He also broke similar barriers with several Oscar nominations. And a professional acquaintance with Sinatra turned into a friendship over time - Quincy received his signet ring in 1998 after the legendary musician's death. "I never take it off. When I arrive in Sicily I don't need a passport - I just show it."
As a young man, Jones sang trumpet to Elvis Presley himself, but a key experience for his musical development was ordered by a tour of Europe with Lionel Hampton's band. Thus began his relationship with the Old Continent, which took various forms in the following decades. In 1957, he settled in Paris and educated himself under the tutelage of legendary composers Nadia Boulanger and Olivier Messiaen. This experience taught him respect for all kinds of music.
Quincy's weakness for Europe is perhaps explained to some extent by genes - DNA tests have shown that he has a fair admixture of European blood on both sides. After Paris, he also fell in love with Berlin (he lived here in the 1990s, when he hooked up with Kinski) and Stockholm. He returned to the last of these cities particularly often in recent years - there was a clinic there to manage his diet and oversee regular examinations.
Managing the stars
Despite two strokes, he planned to live to be a hundred, but the failure of that ambitious plan doesn't change the fact that he actually nurtured young talent until the very end. Among other things, with the help of the Qwest platform, which he portrayed as the "jazz Netflix." The scale of his influence on pop culture has been shown in recent years by two documentaries. In the fall of 2018, Quincy somewhat smoothed over the effects of a controversial interview and showed Jones as a perky old man with an unflagging appetite for life.
For this year's The Greatest Night in Pop he only caught up with a few statements over the phone due to his health, but archival footage shows him at the peak of his powers. In 1985, it was Quincy who was the conductor and organizer, without whom the whole event would not have been possible. Dozens of the most popular musicians (including Tina Turner, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan) were invited to the recording studio right after the American Music Awards ceremony.
The composition itself was created on crazy papers just a few days earlier. Jones oversaw the recording of the demo version, and then took care of shipping the tapes in complete secrecy. He also had to eventually separate the roles - dozens of artists had to accept with understanding that only the choruses remained. And some question marks were clarified only on the day of the recording anyway.
Prince ultimately did not participate in the project, because he wanted to stake his claim to the end and offered to catch up with the guitar solo in a separate room. In the end, he didn't make it and lost the opportunity to symbolically reconcile with Jackson, with whom he had competed at the top of the charts for years.
"Leave the ego at the door" - this inscription by Quincy greeted the flock of stars before entering the studio. The host tried to create an intimate atmosphere and maintained angelic patience until the end. Not even Waylon Jennings' protest took him out of his mind - the country veteran reacted allergically to the proposal to add a line of text in Swahili. Jones also dealt with Cyndi Lauper's ringing bangles and a gulping Dylan, who clearly couldn't find a place for himself.
What caliber of character did we say goodbye to in early November? On social media, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Paul McCartney, LL Cool J, The Weeknd and a host of all sorts of stars and celebrities said goodbye to him. The latest news regarding Quincy Jones concerns his estate - if media leaks are to be believed, he decided to divide more than $500 million equally among his seven children, whom he called his most successful projects.
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Kacper Bartosiak - sports journalist and commentator covering mainly boxing. Creator of the audioserial Golota. Polish Dream, former editor of the Polish edition of "Playboy" and the portals Weszło and Porcys. Sociologist, passionate about sports and pop culture.
