We remember renowned composer, arranger and producer Quincy Jones and listen back to Terry Gross's 2001 interview with him. He died Sunday at the age of 91. He got his start playing with Ray Charles when they were both in their teens. Jones became famous as an arranger and producer for musicians including Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, and Michael Jackson on his albums Bad, Off the Wall and Thriller.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: Who was Quincy Jones and why is he significant?
This is Fresh Air. I'm Terry Gross. Today, we remember Quincy Jones. He died Sunday at the age of 91. In his New York Times obit, music critic Ben Ratliff described Jones as one of the most powerful forces in American popular music for more than a century. Jones started his career as a trumpeter in Lionel Hampton's big band in the early 50s, but he never became a noted instrumentalist.
What made him famous and wealthy was his work as an arranger, composer, and record producer, work that spans from the big bands through bebop, pop, movie soundtracks, TV themes, and hip-hop.
He arranged or produced recordings for Sinatra, Ray Charles, Aretha, Dinah Washington, George Benson, and Ice-T, and he produced the Michael Jackson albums Off the Wall, Bad, and the best-selling album of all time, Thriller. His music has been sampled in many hip-hop recordings, and his 1962 recording, Soul Bossa Nova, was used as the theme to the Austin Powers films.
The multimedia company Quincy Jones Entertainment produced the sitcoms The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, In the House, and the sketch show Mad TV. I spoke with him in 2001, after the release of his memoir, Q, and a four-CD box set by the same name of music featuring him as a trumpeter, arranger, composer, or producer. We started with a sampling of tracks from that collection.
Another bride, another June, another sunny honeymoon. Another season, another reason for making whoopee.
Look at me. I'm as helpless as a kitten up a tree. And I feel like I'm clinging to a cloud. I can't understand. I get misty just holding your hand.
I never cared much for moonlit skies I never winked back at fireflies But now that the stars are in your eyes I'm beginning to see the light I never went in
fly me to the moon let me play among the stars let me see what spring is like on jupiter and mars in other words hold my hand In other words, baby kiss me.
That's a sampling of music from the four-CD box set Q that was released at the same time as his memoir Q. That was back in 2001, when I spoke with him. One of the first musicians he became good friends with was Ray Charles. They met when Charles was 16 and Jones was 14. I asked Quincy Jones how they met.
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Chapter 2: What were Quincy Jones' early musical influences?
Your first important music job was with the Lionel Hampton Big Band. You got that job while you were still in high school. How did he hire you when you were still in school?
I had written a suite that I'd been working on for a long time called From the Four Winds. And it was almost a descriptive piece. And I didn't understand theory too well then. But I just went straight. It didn't stop me from writing. I didn't understand key signatures or anything. And I would say silly things on the top of a trumpet part like...
A note, when you play B naturals, make the B naturals a half step lower because they sound funny if they're B naturals. And some guy said, idiot, just put a flat on the third line and it's a key signature. Because it didn't bother me that I didn't understand it because I knew eventually I'd learn it. And so I gave this arrangement to, submitted this to Lionel Hampton.
And he said, you wrote this, huh? I said, yeah. He played trumpet too. He said, yeah. Well, he said, how'd you like to join my band, please? I said, are you kidding? And so they had little brown leather bags for your trumpet then. I had that and just very few toilet articles and so forth.
And I went and sat on that bus so nobody would change their mind, and I wouldn't have to ask the people at home whether I could go or not. And sure enough, everybody got on one by one. Hamp said hi, and I felt secure. Then Gladys Hampton got on the bus and said, uh-uh.
what is that child doing on this bus and she said no son you get off the bus and so we'll try to talk later but you go to school and uh i was destroyed and so i got a scholarship to boston to the berkeley college of music and uh i got the call a friend named janet thurlow was singing with the band and she reminded them And they called and said, we'd like you to be with the band.
I was 18 then, and I was ready. I was told at school I'd be back. I guess down inside, you know when you go with a band like that, you never go back.
Now, you said that you were afraid that when you were playing with Hampton that Parker or Thelonious Monk might show up in the audience, and you were worried they'd laugh at what you had to wear in the band. What did you have to wear in the Hampton band?
Well, that incident happened when we were playing at a place on Broadway called right next door to Birdland. I mean, totally adjacent. And both places were downstairs. And we had to wear Tyrolean hats, purple shawl collared coats, and Bermuda shorts.
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Chapter 3: How did Quincy Jones meet Ray Charles?
And so we came home all excited about this new music. They had moved the clave beat, which is really like the foundation of Latin music, straight up and down Latin America. That's the foundation of the clave beat. It's the guiding force. And I wanted to record some of this stuff.
So I made a thing called Big Band Bossa Nova, and I wrote into about 20 minutes, this is 1962, a tune called Soul Bossa Nova. We had Brazilian rhythm section and everything else, and I guess 38 years passed. Now, Austin Powers is this huge star, and he's stuck with this thing. This is his theme forever. Da-da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da-da.
And it's amazing, because they did two movies with the theme, and he opened it with a marching band playing it the first time. Now, he wants me to be in the next film.
So were you flattered when you found out that Mike Myers wanted to use your soul bossa nova as the theme for Austin Powers? Or did you think, oh, now it's going to be camp. Now it's going to be seen as camp.
Well, it was camp. But, you know, it doesn't matter, though, because, you know, a tune like that was kind of a campy tune anyway. So I loved it, you know. I was very happy that he found a whole new... a home for this, you know, in this generation.
Well, let's hear your 1962 recording of Sol Bossa Nova, which later became the theme for Austin Powers.
Thank you.
That's Quincy Jones' 1962 recording of his composition Sol Bossa Nova, also known now as the theme for Austin Powers. Other music you were doing in the 1960s, you also had a pop music career. One of your biggest successes was Leslie Gore. You produced her first big hit, It's My Party, and produced other records of hers as well. Tell us how you discovered Leslie Gore.
Well, it was sort of a challenge, really, because I had come back from Europe, and I had lost a lot of money, and I had to say, Irving Green, the president of Mercury, said, come over here as an A&R man, because you are an artist on Mercury anyway, an artist in repertoire. He hired me, and he promoted me to vice president. And
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