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Quincy Jones Works on New Project
May 30, 2011, 01:31:56 PM
No let-up for perpetual music maker Quincy Jones
2:30 p.m. EDT, May 29, 2011
RABAT, Morocco—




After a frenetic career as producer to Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Michael Jackson and many other music legends, 78-year-old Quincy Jones refuses to slow down and has just signed up for a new project in the Arab world.

"I'm 78 and I've still got a lot of energy and I want to do what my dreams are, which is to see people come together across the barriers," Jones told Reuters in the Moroccan capital Rabat where he appeared in the Mawazine music festival.

He scoffs at a question as to whether age and past medical woes, such as a serious cerebral aneurysm he suffered in 1974, might encourage him to ease up.

"Not at all. I'll slow down when I die," he said.

As a performer, Jones was already touring North Africa and other parts of the world in the 1950s with some of the biggest names of jazz including Lionel Hampton and Dizzy Gillespie.

He arranged Sinatra's "Fly Me to the Moon" and produced Michael Jackson's album "Thriller" and the 1985 "We are the World" recording for African famine relief.

Watching the star-studded 1990 documentary "Listen Up: The Lives of Quincy Jones" today, one is struck by how many of the music legends linked to Jones have since died.

"Sinatra, Ray Charles, Billy Eckstine, Ella Fitzgerald -- all gone," Jones said before adding the name of film director Sidney Lumet and others. "How do you think I feel? I've lost 188 friends, man, in less than 15 years."


"It hurts," the veteran producer, musician and arranger continued. "It just doesn't stop."

Doctors have long told Jones to reduce his workload. "I know, I don't care. I like what I am doing," he said.

RIFFING ON HIS PAST

Like a master jazz improviser able to draw on thousands of musical phrases, Jones, with the slightest association, is well prepared to roll out a remarkable array of genial anecdotes about a lifetime of adventures with music legends.

A mention of Italy prompts him to show off his much cherished ring from Frank Sinatra. India sparks him to tell of meeting sitarist Ravi Shankar in 1956, after which he recalls that Shankar is father to singer Norah Jones.

A reference to Serbia inspires him to show off a few words in Serbian, including one off-color one that causes him much amusement.

In one of his latest projects, Jones, who has won 27 Grammy Awards, has launched a joint venture to promote music in North Africa and the Middle East in which musicians from different cultures will work together.

They are also recording a new song to raise funds for regional scholarships.

A musician from the besieged Libyan town of Misrata made a visit to Rabat this week for the project. On Sunday, Jones was also set to appear at a memorial concert in Marrakesh after an attack there killed 17 people a month ago.

"More and more when you get older you do exactly what you believe in with the people that you love and trust and admire," he told Reuters. "That's where I am now, which allows me to do what I feel and give back what I feel, whatever I want to do."

Jones says he feels an affinity for Arabs as they have often suffered from prejudice like American blacks.

"People have preconceived concepts of you just on your appearance. That's sad," he said. "My two least favorite words are 'you people." I hate that word."

"All the things I did, they said you were the first. That means only," he said. "Like first black (vice) president of a record company or the first one to produce the Oscars."

As a musician, Jones has frequently changed with the times, from bebop and big band jazz earlier in his career to pop and hip-hop later on. He is hoping evolving medical technology will enable him to stay involved for many more years.

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Notice he left the most important person out of his list of his friends who have died?
Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by Guest
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MJonmind

Re: Quincy Jones Works on New Project
May 30, 2011, 02:02:35 PM
Good observation! Sure sounds like there's a lot of things happening in Africa and middle east countries. I hope we get to hear about some of them, especially MJ's direct involvement and influence.
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Re: Quincy Jones Works on New Project
May 30, 2011, 02:17:38 PM
Quote from: "MJonmind"
Good observation! Sure sounds like there's a lot of things happening in Africa and middle east countries. I hope we get to hear about some of them, especially MJ's direct involvement and influence.

Im sure Quincy has done this before, as i remember there was another interview a while ago when he didnt mention Michael as being someone who had passed.
I mean...  you would think he would mention Michael, as MJ was the one who really did put Quincy on the map and made his fortune.  Just seems so odd to me.

And i immediately thought about the thread on here about the tarot reading which mentioned Africa and a special project for the children...  could well be what Quincy is working on.
Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by Guest
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everlastinglove_MJ

Re: Quincy Jones Works on New Project
May 31, 2011, 10:16:01 AM
Quote from: "Miss.Peppers"
as i remember there was another interview a while ago when he didnt mention Michael as being someone who had passed.

I'd think he knows. Did you remember this interview, I copied&pasted the part in which Quincy Jones mentioned that he couldn't choose between passed and living artists:
Quote
QJ:I couldn’t pick that if I wanted to. Between Sarah, Ella and Basie and Sinatra and Ray Charles and Aretha and Tony Bennett and Michael… I can’t do it. [Laughs] They all were total individuals. And powerful individuals. Everybody had such a distinctive sound. That’s what I like, when people believe in who they are.
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What I noticed in this article was in particular the last part, which I bolded. The difference between the blue and red marked group of singers is respectively dead and alive. Meaning: blue groep: Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles are NOT alive AND the red group: Aretha Franklin, Tony Bennet and Michael... are ALIVE. To me it looks like Quincy mentioned deliberately the difference of these groups. Mmmm...interesting  

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It's all for L.O.V.E.

Re: Quincy Jones Works on New Project
June 01, 2011, 12:45:07 PM
@everlastinglove_Mj

Thankyou, that is what i was thinking about.

Seems, for whatever reason, he never mentions MJ as being someone who is dead.
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