Last week, my church had a First Friday concert featuring a jazz instrumental quartet. One of the last songs they performed was Killer Joe, and I knew I had a version of that song with a vocalist. But I couldn’t initially recall on what album.
Then it occurred to me that it was on Q’s Jook Joint, the 1995 album by Quincy Jones; that track featured Töne Löc, Queen Latifah, and Nancy Wilson (the jazz artist, not the Heart member). One of the people with whom I was talking also had the album.
Soon afterward, I heard that he passed away. As the Los Angeles Times put it, he “expanded the American songbook as a musician, composer, and producer and shaped some of the biggest stars and most memorable songs in the second half of the 20th century.”
“The music producer has been a cornerstone of the music industry since his early beginnings as an 18 year old in Seattle, performing as a trumpeter and arranger for various jazz bands around the area.”
Quincy was always a major force in my life, even before I knew who he was. His previous album, Back On The Block, from 1989, featured various artists I mentioned here.
He wrangled all the artists in the all-star recording of We Are The World, the 1985 charity record for famine relief in Africa. The same year, he scored and co-produced the movie The Color Purple.
The Gloved One
Q produced the massively successful Michael Jackson albums Off the Wall, Thriller, and Bad. Audio interviews with Jones are included in the 2001 special editions of the albums. Q called Eddie Van Halen to ask to play on Thriller’s Beat It, but the guitarist hung up, assuming someone was pranking him. Q’s then-wife, Peggy Lipton, knew Vincent Price and helped get him for the title track.
Possibly my favorite Q-produced song: Strawberry Letter 23.
Q created the music for Sanford and Son, Ironside, The Cosby Show, and several other programs. He scored Roots and over three dozen movies.
Until much later, I did not know this. “Jones produced all four million-selling singles for Lesley Gore during the early and mid-sixties, including “It’s My Party” (UK No. 8; US No. 1), its sequel “Judy’s Turn To Cry” (US No. 5), “She’s A Fool” (also a US No. 5) in 1963, and “You Don’t Know Me” (US No. 2 for four weeks in 1964). He continued to produce for Gore until 1966, including the Greenwich/Barry hits “Look Of Love” (US No. 27 in 1965) and “Maybe I Know” (UK No. 20; US No. 14 in 1964).”
He worked with Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Dizzy Gillespie, Sammy Davis Jr., Barbra Streisand, Helen Merrill, Stevie Wonder, John Legend, Andy Williams, and Sonny Bono, among many others.
His accolades are extensive, filling 18 pages in his 2001 autobiography, “Q.” You can read the pieces from THR, Variety, and the New York Times.
“Quincy Jones’ last Grammy win took place at the 65th awards held in 2023; through Harry Styles’ win with Harry’s House as the Album of the Year, it took Jones’ all-time Grammy records to 28 wins from 80 nominations.”