From “street rat” to music master

Quincy Jones turned 50 after attending his own memorial service.

When the musician suffered a brain aneurysm in 1974, his chances of survival were said to be so slim and his stature so high that his famous friends began planning a tribute concert.

At 41 years old, Jones has left an indelible mark on the American music industry as a performer, arranger, songwriter, producer, soundtrack composer and record producer.

His career began in jazz clubs in the 1950s. Mastered soul, swing and pop on records by Dinah Washington, Frank Sinatra and Lesley Gore; single-handedly reached the top ten.

Some of America’s most famous entertainers agreed to perform at his memorial service.

When he got through it, the show went on.

Jones went along with his neurologist, who had strict instructions not to get too excited.

“Richard Pryor, Marvin Gaye, Sarah Vaughan and Sidney Poitier all raved about you, which is hard to do,” In 2008, he told Newsweek.

More exciting things are yet to come.

Jones later formed a landmark partnership with Michael Jackson. Oversaw 1985’s “We Are the World,” one of the best-selling songs of all time; produced hits for artists including Chaka Khan and Donna Summer; and collaborated with the biggest names in hip-hop.

No branch of American popular music was untouched by his influence.

Jones has always been a survivor.

He grew up on Chicago’s South Side in the shadow of the Great Depression of the 1930s. When he was seven, his mother was committed to a mental hospital and his father worked as a carpenter for the notorious gangster Jones Boys.

Young Quincy also wanted to be a gangster. “You want to be what you see, and that’s what we see,” he said.

He and his brother were “street rats,” and when he wandered into the wrong neighborhood when he was seven, a rival gang member “pinned my hand to the fence.” Another injury was an ice pick hitting her in the face.

His father took the family to Washington state, and one night Quincy and some friends broke into a community center in search of food. There is a piano inside.

“I touched it and every cell in my body said, this is what you’re going to do [for] the rest of your life” He told BBC Radio 4’s Front Row 2016.

Speaking to rapper Kendrick Lamar in a 2018 Netflix documentary, he said the encounter “changed my life,” adding that if he hadn’t discovered music, “I would have died.” Or go to jail.”

Quincy immediately began experimenting with instruments in school, eventually settling on the trumpet and began playing in nightclubs.

At 14, he befriended another then-unknown musician, Ray Charles, and became a lifelong collaborator.

At 14, he also played with Billie Holiday and was under the care of bandleader Count Basie and trumpeter Clark Terry. He continued to accompany Dizzy Gillespie and appeared in the band during Elvis Presley’s first television appearance.

While touring the world with Lionel Hampton’s big band, he displayed a talent for arranging songs, and he soon became popular in this capacity.

But after running up $145,000 in debt on a European tour, he got a full-time job at Mercury Records in 1961, becoming the first African-American vice president of a major label.

There he discovered and produced Lesley Gore’s multi-million-selling single “It’s My Party.” He also released the Big Band Bossa Nova compilation album, which included his own infectious song Soul Bossa Nova, which later became a staple at parties and on movie soundtracks, including Austin Powers.

Meanwhile, Sinatra was impressed by Jones’s work and invited him to arrange and conduct two of his albums in the 1960s. The two formed a fruitful partnership, with Sinatra calling him a “giant” and “one of the finest musicians I’ve ever known.”

The two became firm friends outside the studio as well. “Seven double Jack Daniel’s drinks in one hour… [Sinatra] Invented the party,” Jones recalled.

Jones also worked with many of the biggest names of the day, including Aretha Franklin, Louis Armstrong and Sammy Davis Jr., while his solo album Body Heat also reached the top ten in the US.

At the same time, he was writing scores for TV shows and movies, including In Cold Blood, The Italian Job, and Roots.

In Cold Blood author Truman Capote reportedly tried to remove Jones from the film because he was black. But he stayed, and Jones’ score earned him his first of seven Oscar nominations.

The other soundtrack was for the 1978 musical film version of “The Wizard of Oz,” starring Diana Ross and a 19-year-old Michael Jackson, who wanted to branch out after becoming famous as a child on “The Jackson 5.” own field.

Jones saw superstar qualities in Jackson and became his producer and mentor, first on 1979’s hit Off the Wall and then on 1982’s Thriller, which was a commercial and critical hit Xanadu’s success reached new heights and established Jackson as the undisputed king of pop music.

The album was not only the realization of Jackson’s talent, it was the pinnacle of Jones’ career as he used his unparalleled musical expertise to define the 1980s with a stylish and sophisticated blend of R&B and pop.

Jones listened to hundreds of songs to decide which nine should appear on the album and hired a dream team of musicians and songwriters he’d assembled over the years.

His choice of collaborators proves his knack for knowing how to make a good song great. For “Beat It,” he felt the single needed a more rock sound, so he hired Eddie Van Halen to contribute a guitar solo. Legend has it that the solo was so explosive that the speakers in the studio caught fire.

When it came to the title track, Jones didn’t like the original title, “Starlight,” so he asked its writer, Rod Templeton, to come up with something different. Templeton renamed it “Thriller” and reworked it with a spooky theme. Finally, Jones asked his wife’s friend, horror actor Vincent Price, to record a spoken-word closing number.

The album earned Jones and Jackson Grammys for Producer of the Year, Thriller was named Album of the Year, and Beat It won Record of the Year.

Jones used his winning formula in the 1980s with George Benson, Donna Summer and Patti Austin, and with Jackson and Lionel Lionel Richie created the best-selling single of the decade when he brought together 35 of America’s biggest names for his 1985 charity song “We Are the World.”

Jones famously posted a message at the studio entrance, telling stars: “Check your ego at the door.”

He achieved further success with the albums “The Dude” and “Back on the Block” under his own name. The latter was released in 1989 and featured an all-star cast, including many friends from his early career such as Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and Ray Charles.

But as well as looking to the past, he’s also firmly grounded in the present, featuring rappers like Ice-T and Grandmaster Melle Mel on the title track.

It earned Jones another Grammy Award for Album of the Year.

Even though he was in his 50s, he loved rap music because he saw similarities with the energy of bebop and because many of its stars emerged from hardship in the streets.

“I felt a sense of kinship there because we went through a lot of the same things,” he said.

The rap star reciprocated the affection, viewing Jones as an inspiring elder statesman in the African American music industry. Even Kendrick and Dr. Dre were in awe when they saw him in a Netflix documentary called Quincy , directed by his daughter, actress Rashida Jones.

Jones used his position to try to stop violence in the hip-hop community, convening the Quincy Jones Hip-Hop Symposium in 1995, where he spoke to a roomful of national rap stars.

“I’d like to see you live at least as long as I am,” he told them.

For Jones, social activism goes hand in hand with his music.

He met Martin Luther King in 1955, and “from that point on, my life was never the same,” he said.

“Civil rights work and political engagement are no longer a side activity. It has become an essential part of life and humanity.”

He founded the Quincy Jones Listening Foundation and launched the “We Are the Future” program, among other causes.

Elsewhere, his formidable work ethic has seen him launch record label and hip-hop magazine Vibe, and produce films like The Color Purple and TV shows like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

His family life and health suffered due to his heavy workload and chronic alcoholism.

He married and divorced three times and suffered a nervous breakdown after splitting from his third wife, Peggy Lipton. To recover, he moved to a Pacific island owned by actor Marlon Brando, whom he first met at a jazz club when he was 18.

Jones also dated actress and model Nastassja Kinski in the 1990s, with whom he had seven children.

In 2015, he was in a coma for four days due to diabetes and was hospitalized the following year due to blood clots.

He died on Sunday at the age of 91, leaving the music world in mourning.

If there were to be a second Quincy Jones Memorial Concert, stars would be lining up to celebrate the full range of this extraordinary talent’s achievements.