A Close Look at 'Q'

Nov. 18, 2008 — -- Impresario Quincy Jones is synonymous with pop music. As an artist, producer and collaborator, the man known simply as 'Q' has served more than 50 years as a creative force in music.

He's worked with legends like Frank Sinatra, Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey. Jones crafted and cultivated the talent of a Gary, Ind., singer named Michael Jackson. In his new book, Jones takes a look at his life with help from a few famous friends, whose personal interviews, recollections and photographs paint an intimate picture of the living legend.

Read an excerpt of "The Complete Quincy Jones: My Journey & Passions: Photos, Letters, Memories & More from Q's Personal Collection" below and click here to check out more book excerpts in our library.

An American impresario, Quincy Jones's legend is best told not simply be telling the story but by showing the story with the rich visuals that illustrate the life of a great man. Like his music, The Complete Quincy Jones: My Journey & Passions is a beautiful arrangement filled with private reflections and snapshots of his early years and family album and how he followed his muse and, as he put it, "walked in the shoes of giants," such as Lionel Hampton, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Bumps Blackwell, Clark Terry, and his dear friend Ray Charles.

Deeply personal, this rare collection of photographs and memorabilia beautifully depicts a life lived large and one that has touch many others through his music and how he inspires as a role model.

Quincy Jones is the most successful Renaissance man in the history of American popular music. That's quite a boast, and not one that the modest man is likely to claim for himself should you get him in a corner. But look at the facts. Can he produce? Only the biggest selling album of all time, Michael Jackson's Thriller, not to mention the chart-busting single that got forty-six mega-stars in the same room at the same time, "We Are the World." Can he do anything else? Only compose, arrange, and play almost any instrument you can think of. Can he hang onstage and in the studio with the best of them? Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Aretha Franklin, George Benson, Donna Summer—those are just a few of the legends he's worked intimately with over the last several decades.

You'd think that's enough to not only keep a man busy, but keep him from even finding enough time to sleep. But Quincy's never one to let the grass grow under his feet, at the age of twenty-five or seventy-five, eventually becoming a universally respected figure, whose reach extends to all walks of life. He's also somehow managed to find time to make hit solo records under his own name, and score dozens of hit movies and television shows. And he's not content to do nothing but music, either, also producing hit movies, TV shows, and world-uniting concerts; creating the foremost hip-hop magazine, Vibe; and entrepreneurial achievements such as owning and operating TV and radio stations, in addition to several major international humanitarian programs.

Alice Walker's novel The Color Purple is a cornerstone literary reflection of African-American culture, so when it was made into a film, it seemed only appropriate that Quincy was asked to do the score and be a co-producer. Movie production might not have been nearly as big a feature on his resume as record production, but once Quincy decides to do something, it's total immersion. For two years, "I shut myself off from everything to work on the movie. I sat in front of a blank screen, day after day, imagining what the film should look like. I wanted to experience every aspect of making a film."

The fellow he chose to direct the film came as a surprise, but Quincy's always shot for the top when it comes to choosing his collaborators. The honor went to Steven Spielberg, whom he'd met when Spielberg was directing E.T., a 1982 film almost as big in the world of cinema as Thriller was in pop music. Coming at a time when Quincy's work in music and other media was getting faster and more furious, Quincy also ended up producing the storybook LP for E.T., to which Michael Jackson contributed narration and a song.

When you make decisions that the people raising the bucks don't expect, you can in turn expect some squawking before you get your way, just as some people who'd taken some risks on Quincy's behalf met with some resistance before he could seize the opportunities he was given. "When we were trying to make Color Purple, everyone was saying, 'He is out of his mind, his first picture he's ever been involved in in his life, he's talking about Steven Spielberg, it doesn't work like that.' But [Steven and I] were friends. I believed he could do anything, and told him that. He says, 'I shouldn't be doing this black picture.' And I said, 'Yes, you should. You didn't have to go to Mars to do E.T. You didn't have any experience there.' We went up to Alice Walker's, and he was very concerned and nervous. One thing led to another; Alice told us about a lady up in San Francisco, Whoopi [Goldberg]," who ended up playing the lead role of Celie in the movie.

Quincy can take personal credit for the discovery of the woman who would play the important supporting role of Sofia, putting her on the road to a career that eventually found her recognized as one of the influential American celebrities bar none. "I was casting one of the most important things in my life, The Color Purple," he remembers now. "And in the middle of that, [CBS Records executive] Walter Yetnikoff said, 'You have to go out to Chicago and testify for Michael [Jackson] in a plagiarism case.' I couldn't sleep, and about quarter after nine, I turned on the TV set, and saw [the local talk show] AM Chicago. I saw this lady, and my soul jumped on fire. I said, 'She can act! She is Sofia. There's no doubt about it.' I didn't know her name; they didn't mention her name.

"I went through some of my friends and found out who she was; it was Oprah. And she was going to be the wife of Harpo. I never heard of anyone called Oprah and guess what—Oprah backwards spells Harpo. And I knew it was not only my decision, it was beyond me.