Born on
March 14 1933 in
Chicago, Illinois, Jones is the eldest son of Quincy Delight Jones Sr. and Jones Sr.'s first wife, Sara. Jones is of Cherokee, West African and Welsh ancestry. Jones discovered music in grade school and took up the
trumpet. When he was 10, his family moved to
Bremerton, Washington; there he attended
Garfield High School.
In 1951, Jones won a scholarship to the Schillinger House in
Boston. However, he abandoned his studies when he received an offer to tour as a trumpeter with the legendary bandleader
Lionel Hampton. While Jones was on the road with Hampton, he displayed an unusual gift for arranging songs. Jones relocated to
New York City, where he received a number of freelance commissions arranging songs for artists like
Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Gene Krupa, and his old friend
Ray Charles.
In 1956, Jones toured again as a trumpeter and musical director of the
Dizzy Gillespie Band on a tour of the
Middle East and
South America sponsored by the
United States State Department. Upon his return to the
United States, Jones got a contract from
ABC-Paramount Records and commenced his recording career as the leader of his own band.
Jones moved to
Paris, France in 1957. He studied music composition and theory with
Nadia Boulanger and
Olivier Messiaen. He also performed at the
Paris Olympia. Jones became music director at Barclay Disques, the French distributor for
Mercury Records and during the 1950s, Jones successfully toured throughout
Europe with a number of
jazz orchestras. He formed his own band and organized a tour of
North America and
Europe. Though the tour was a critical success, poor budget planning made it an economic disaster and the fallout left Jones in a financial crisis.
Irving Green, head of
Mercury Records, got Jones back on his feet with a loan and a new job as the musical director of the company's
New York division. In 1964, Jones was promoted to vice-president of the company, thus becoming the first
African American to hold such a position. Quoted in
Musician magazine, Jones said about his ordeal, "We had the best jazz band in the planet, and yet we were literally starving. That's when I discovered that there was
music, and there was the
music business. If I were to survive, I would have to learn the difference between the two."
In 1963 Jones helped discover singer
Lesley Gore, and produced some of her biggest hits, including "
It's My Party."
1964 also saw Jones break down another social barrier: at the invitation of film director
Sidney Lumet he began composing the first of the 33 major motion picture scores he would eventually write. The result was the legendary score for
The Pawnbroker.
With
Hollywood beckoning, Jones resigned from Mercury Records and moved to
Los Angeles to compose film scores full time. Some of his most celebrated compositions were for the films
Walk, Don't Run,
In Cold Blood,
The Slender Thread,
In the Heat of the Night,
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, which featured
Merrilee Rush performing a cover of the Burt Bacharach classic
What The World Needs Now,
Cactus Flower,
The Getaway,
The Italian Job, and
The Color Purple. He also scored for television, including the shows "
Roots" Ironside,
Sanford and Son, and
The Bill Cosby Show, as well as the theme music for
The New Bill Cosby Show titled "Chump Change," which would later serve as the theme for the game show
Now You See It.
In the 1960s, Jones worked as an arranger for some of the most important artists of the era, including
Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, and
Dinah Washington. Jones' solo recordings also garnered acclaim, including
Walking in Space,
Gula Materi,
Smackwater Jack and Ndeda,
You've Got It Bad, Girl,
Body Heat,
Mellow Madness,
I Heard That, and
The Dude.
In 1974, Jones suffered a
cerebral aneurysm that almost claimed his life. He underwent two major brain surgeries and spent half a year convalescing. He was advised never to play trumpet again as it might disturb the settings left in his head by the procedure.
In 1985, Jones scored the
Steven Spielberg film adaptation of
The Color Purple. He and
Jerry Goldsmith (from
Twilight Zone: The Movie) are the only 2 composers besides
John Williams to have scored a theatrical Spielberg film.
After the 1985 American Music Awards ceremony, Jones used his influence to draw every major American recording artist of the day into a studio to lay down the legendary track "
We Are the World" to raise money for the victims of
Ethiopia's famine. When people marvelled at his ability to make the collaboration work, Jones explained that he'd taped a simple sign on the entrance: "Check Your Ego At The Door".
In 1994, Jones introduced
Tamia to the music industry. "She is the best vocalist I've ever heard. She was so young but her voice was so matured that you'd swear she is old while she was still 18," Jones said of her.
In 1996, Jones collaborated with
David Salzman to produce the concert extravaganza
An American Reunion, a celebration of
Bill Clinton's inauguration as president of the
United States. In 1994, Salzman and Jones decided to form the company Quincy Jones/David Salzman Entertainment (QDE) with
Time/Warner Inc.. QDE is a diverse company which produces media technology, motion pictures, television programs (
In the House,
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and
MADtv, literary publications (
Vibe and
Spin magazines).
In 2001, he published his autobiography
Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones.
On July 31st, 2007, Quincy Jones partnered with Wizzard Media
http://www.wizzard.tv/ to launch the Quincy Jones Video Podcast
http://quincyjones.com/. In each episode, Quincy Jones shares his knowledge and experience in the music industry. The first episode features Quincy in the studio, producing "I Knew I Loved you" for
Celine Dion, which is featured on the
Ennio Morricone tribute album,
We All Love Ennio Morricone and is slated for an October 2007 release on Dion's forthcoming album.
