Jazz / Jazz-Pop, Contemporary Jazz, Crossover Jazz
Quincy Jones - Producer, Mixing, Liner Notes, Arranger, Synthesizer Arrangements, Vocal Arrangement, Programming, Drum Programming, Rhythm Arrangements, Executive Producer, Conductor, Korg M1, String Arrangements
Aaron Zigman Synthesizer, Clavinet
Abraham Laboriel Bass
Al Aarons Trumpet
Al B. Sure! Vocals (Background)
Al Grey Trombone
Alex Brown Vocals (Background)
Alvin Chea Vocals (Background)
Andy Zax Liner Editor
Anthony DAmigo Assistant Engineer
Anthony Jackson Bass
Aretha Franklin Producer, Soloist, Piano, Performer
Barry White Performer
Benard Ighner Performer
Bernard "Pretty" Purdie Drums
Bill Hughes Trombone (Bass)
Bill Inglot Remastering
Bill Reichenbach Jr. Trombone
Bill Ross String Arrangements
Bobby Plater Sax (Alto), Flute
Brandon Fields Soloist, Saxophone
Brandy Performer
Brian McKnight Performer
Brian Reeves Assistant Engineer
Bridgette Bryant Vocals (Background)
Bruce Dukov Concert Master
Bruce Swedien Drums, Drums (Snare), Engineer, Mixing
C.J. DeVillar Assistant, Sound Design
Caiphus Semenya Chant
Carlos Vega Drums
Cedric Dent Vocals (Background)
Charles Loper Trombone
Charlie Fowlkes Sax (Baritone), Flute
Cheech d'Amico Assistant Engineer
Christopher Currell Synclavier
Chuck Findley Trumpet
Chuck Rainey Bass (Electric)
Clark Spangler Programming, Synthesizer Programming, Keyboard Programming
Claude McKnight Vocals (Background)
Count Basie Piano
Count Basie Orchestra Performer
Dan Hersch Remastering
Dave Hancock Assistant
David Blumberg Arranger
David Foster Arranger, Piano (Electric), Piano, Keyboards, Synthesizer
David Paich Arranger, Synthesizer, Keyboards
Douglas Getschall Drum Programming
Ed Cherney Assistant Engineer
Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis Sax (Tenor)
El DeBarge Performer, Vocals (Background)
Eliane Henri Creative Director
Eric Dawkins Vocals (Background), Vocal Arrangement
Eric Dixon Flute, Sax (Tenor)
Eric Gale Guitar
Eric White Sound Design
Erik Hanson Synthesizer Programming, Drum Programming
Ernie Watts Sax (Tenor), Saxophone, Soloist, Flute
Florian Ammon Sound Design
Francis Buckley Engineer
Frank Rosolino Trombone
Frank Sinatra Performer
Fred Jackson, Jr. Saxophone
Freddie Green Guitar
Gary Grant Trumpet
Gavin Lurssen Mastering
George Benson Guitar, Soloist, Performer
George Bohanon Trombone
George Cohn Trumpet
George Doering Guitar
George Duke Soloist, Fender Rhodes
Gerald Albright Soloist, Sax (Alto)
Gerald Vinci Concert Master
Greg Phillinganes Fender Rhodes, Synthesizer, Soloist, Arranger, Piano (Electric), Rhythm Arrangements, Piano, Keyboards
Grover Mitchell Trombone
Harrison Funk Cover Photo
Heavy D & the Boyz Performer
Henderson Chambers Trombone
Herbie Hancock Arp 2600, Synthesizer, Keyboards, Soloist, Synthesizer Pads, Piano, Fender Rhodes
Ian Boxill Engineer
Ian Prince Keyboards
Ian Underwood Synthesizer, Synthesizer Programming, Programming
Jack Nimitz Saxophone
James DeBarge Vocals (Background)
James Gadson Drums
James Ingram Performer
James Moody Saxophone, Soloist, Performer
Jeff Clayton Saxophone
Jeff Porcaro Drums
Jerry Hey Horn Arrangements, Synthesizer Programming, Arranger, Associate Producer, Synthesizer Arrangements, Trumpet, Flugelhorn
Jesse Gorman Assistant
Jesse Kirkland Vocal Group
Jim Gilstrap Vocal Group
Joe Greene Vocal Group
Joel Moss Engineer, Mixing
Joey Kibble Vocals (Background)
John "4 Daddman" Robinson Drums
John Barnes Rhythm Arrangements, Vocal Arrangement, Synthesizer Arrangements, Synthesizer
John Clayton Conductor, Arranger
Johnny Mandel String Arrangements, Producer, Synthesizer Arrangements
Jorge Calandrelli Synthesizer String Arrangement
Judith Bright Liner Editor, Executive Producer
Keith Henderson Guitar
Kidada Jones Creative Director
Kim Hutchcroft Saxophone, Flute
Kirk Whalum Performer
Larry E. Williams Synthesizer Programming, Synthesizer, Keyboard Programming, Keyboards
Lee Herschberg Tape Editor
Lee Ritenour Rhythm Arrangements, Guitar (Acoustic)
Leon "Ndugu" Chancler Drums
Letta Mbulu Chant
Louis Johnson Bass
Luther Henderson String Arrangements
Luther Vandross Performer
Malcolm Cecil Programming
Mark Hammond Drum Programming
Mark Kibble Vocals (Background), Arranger, Vocal Arrangement
Mark Sackett Assistant
Marshall Royal Sax (Alto), Clarinet
Matt Forger Technical Engineer, Assistant Engineer
Matthew Jordan Smith Photography
Melvin Dunlap Bass (Electric)
Mervyn Warren Keyboards, Synthesizer Bass, Arranger, Performer, Synthesizer
Michael Boddicker Synthesizer, Emulator
Michael Gregory Jackson Vocal Arrangement, Vocals, Producer, Rhythm Arrangements, Vocals (Background)
Michael Hart Thompson Guitar
Michael Jackson Performer
Mick Guzauski Remixing
Nathan East Bass
Neil Stubenhaus Bass
Niels Erik Lund Assistant Engineer
Norman Keenan Bass
Ollie Cotton Assistant Engineer
Oscar Brashear Trumpet
Pablo Munguia Assistant
Patrick Weber Technician
Patti Austin Performer, Vocals (Background)
Paul Jackson, Jr. Guitar
Paulinho Da Costa Percussion
Percival "Sonny" Payne Drums
Pete Christlieb Saxophone
Peter Jull Kristensen Assistant
Peter Mokran Drum Programming, Synthesizer Programming
Phil (Boogie) Schier Engineer, Mixing, Remixing
Phil Woods Soloist, Sax (Alto)
Philip Guilbeau Trumpet
QDIII Arranger, Producer, Keyboards, Drum Programming
R. Kelly Producer, Arranger
Rachelle Ferrell Performer
Ralph MacDonald Percussion
Ralph Osborne Assistant
Randy Kerber Synthesizer Programming
Ray Brown Producer, Trumpet
Reggie C. Young Trombone
Richard Tee Piano, Organ
Rob Hoffman Keyboards
Robbie Buchanan Synthesizer Strings, Piano
Rod Temperton Vocal Arrangement, Synthesizer Arrangements, Arranger, Associate Producer, Rhythm Arrangements, Synthesizer, Keyboards
Rory Bennett Drum Programming, Producer, Synthesizer
Ryan Rogers Design
Sarah Vaughan Performer
Sheridan Eldridge Assistant
Siedah Garrett Vocals (Background), Performer
Simon Franglen Synthesizer Programming
Snooky Young Trumpet
Sonny Burke Producer
Stephanie Gylden Mixing, Engineer, Assistant
Steve Bates Assistant Engineer
Steve Gadd Drums
Steve Lukather Arranger, Guitar
Steve Porcaro Synthesizer, Programming, Synthesizer Programming, Arranger, Synthesizer Pads
Sue McLean Assistant
Take 6 Performer, Vocals (Background)
Tevin Campbell Performer
Thomas D. Graham, II Sound Design
Tim Lauber Assistant Engineer, Assistant
Tom Bahler Arranger, Vocal Director, Vocal Arrangement
Tom Scott Lyricon, Saxophone, Soloist
Tommy Vicari Mixing, Engineer, String Engineer
Toots Thielemans Whistle (Human), Harmonica, Performer, Guitar
Wah Wah Watson Guitar
Wallace Davenport Trumpet
Grouped together, as they are on the double-disc From Q with Love, producer/arranger/conductor Quincy Jones' love songs sound an awful lot alike, with high-gloss production, silky smooth harmonies, and lead singers who all happen to bear a strong vocal resemblance to Jones' most famous client, Michael Jackson. It helps that From Q with Love is loaded with hits from Jones' past 30-plus years, including Patti Austin and James Ingram's "Baby, Come to Me" and "How Do You Keep the Music Playing?," Ingram's "One Hundred Ways" and "Just Once," Jackson's "Human Nature," and a handful of tracks from Jones' 1989 golden showpiece, Back on the Block. ~ Michael Gallucci, All Music Guide
Quincy Jones
Active Decades: '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s and '00s
Born: Mar 14, 1933 in Chicago, IL
Genre: Jazz
Styles: Big Band, Urban, Bop, Swing, Pop, Jazz-Pop, Crossover Jazz, Traditional Pop
In a musical career that has spanned six decades, Quincy Jones has earned his reputation as a renaissance man of American music. Jones has distinguished himself as a bandleader, a solo artist, a sideman, a songwriter, a producer, an arranger, a film composer, and a record label executive, and outside of music, he's also written books, produced major motion pictures, and helped create television series. And a quick look at a few of the artists Jones has worked with suggests the remarkable diversity of his career -- Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra, Count Basie, Lesley Gore, Michael Jackson, Peggy Lee, Ray Charles, Paul Simon, and Aretha Franklin.
Jones was born in Chicago, IL, on March 14, 1933. When he was still a youngster, his family moved to Seattle, WA, and he soon developed an interest in music. In his early teens, Jones began learning the trumpet, and started singing with a local gospel group. By the time he graduated from high school in 1950, Jones had displayed enough promise to win a scholarship to Boston-based music school Schillinger House (which later became known as the Berklee School of Music). After a year at Schillinger, Jones relocated to New York City, where he found work as an arranger, writing charts for Count Basie, Cannonball Adderley, Tommy Dorsey, and Dinah Washington, among others. In 1953, Jones scored his first big break as a performer; he was added to the brass section of Lionel Hampton's orchestra, where he found himself playing alongside jazz legends Art Farmer and Clifford Brown. Three years later, Dizzy Gillespie tapped Jones to play in his band, and later in 1956, when Gillespie was invited to put together a big band of outstanding international musicians, Diz chose Quincy to lead the ensemble. Jones also released his first album under his own name that year, a set for ABC-Paramount appropriately entitled This Is How I Feel About Jazz.
In 1957, Jones moved to Paris in order to study with Nadia Boulanger, an expatriate American composer with a stellar track record in educating composers and bandleaders. During his sojourn in France, Jones took a job with the French record label Barclay, where he produced and arranged sessions for Jacques Brel and Charles Aznavour, as well as traveling American artists, including Billy Eckstine and Sarah Vaughan. Jones' work for Barclay impressed the management at Mercury Records, a American label affiliated with the French imprint, and in 1961, he was named a vice president for Mercury, the first time an African-American had been hired as an upper-level executive by a major U.S. recording company. Jones scored one of his first major pop successes when he produced and arranged "It's My Party" for teenage vocalist Lesley Gore, which marked his first significant step away from jazz into the larger world of popular music. (Jones also freelanced for other labels on the side, including arranging a number of memorable Atlantic sides for Ray Charles.) In 1963, Jones began exploring what would become a fruitful medium for him when he composed his first film score for Sidney Lumet's controversial drama The Pawnbroker; he would go on to write music for 33 feature films, including In Cold Blood, In the Heat of the Night, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, and The Getaway. In 1964, Jones's work with Count Basie led him to arrange and conduct sessions for Frank Sinatra's album It Might as Well Be Swing, recorded in collaboration with Basie and his orchestra; he also worked with Sinatra and Basie again as an arranger for the award-winning Sinatra at the Sands set, and would produce and arrange one of Sinatra's last albums, L.A. Is My Lady, in 1984.
While Jones maintained a busy schedule as a composer, producer, and arranger through the 1960s, he also re-emerged as a recording artist in 1969 with the album Walking in Space, which found Jones recasting his big-band influences within the framework of the budding fusion movement and the influences of contemporary rock, pop, and R&B sounds. The album was a commercial and critical success, and kick started Jones's career as a recording artist. At the same time, he began working more closely with contemporary pop artists, producing sessions for Aretha Franklin and arranging strings for Paul Simon's There Goes Rhymin' Simon, and while Jones continued to work with jazz artists, many hard-and-fast jazz fans began to accuse Jones of turning his back on the genre, though Jones always contended his greatest allegiance was to African-American musical culture rather than any specific style. (Jones did, however, make one major jazz gesture in 1991, when he persuaded Miles Davis to revisit the classic Gil Evans arrangements from Miles Ahead, Sketches of Spain, and Porgy and Bess for that year's Montreux Jazz Festival; Jones coordinated the concert and led the orchestra, and it proved to be one of the last major events for the ailing Davis, who passed on a few months later.) In 1974, Jones suffered a life-threatening brain aneurysm, and while he made a full recovery, he also made a decision to cut back on his schedule to spend more time with his family. While Jones may have had fewer projects on his plate in the late '70s and early '80s, they tended to be higher profile from this point on; he produced major chart hits for the Brothers Johnson, Rufus and Chaka Khan, and his own albums grew into all-star productions in which Jones orchestrated top players and singers in elaborate pop-R&B confections on sets like Body Heat, Sounds...And Stuff Like That!!, and The Dude. Jones' biggest mainstream success, however, came with his work with Michael Jackson; Jones produced his breakout solo album, Off the Wall, in 1979, and in 1982 they teamed up again for Thriller, which went on to become the biggest-selling album of all time. Jones was also on hand for Thriller's follow-up, 1987's Bad, the celebrated USA for Africa session which produced the benefit single "We Are the World" (written by Jackson and Lionel Richie), and he produced a rare album in which Jackson narrated the story of the film E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial.
Having risen to the heights of the recording industry, in 1985 Jones moved from scoring films to producing them; his first screen project was the screen adaptation of Alice Walker's novel -The Color Purple, which was directed by Steven Spielberg and starred Whoopi Goldberg. 1991 found him moving into television production with the situation comedy The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, which gave Will Smith his first starring role. Jones' production company also launched several other successful shows, including In the House and Mad TV. He also produced a massive concert to help commemorate the 1993 inauguration of president Bill Clinton, and at the 1995 Academy Awards won the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, a prize that doubtless found its place beside Quincy's 26 Grammy Awards.
---Mark Deming, All Music Guide |
