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Q on camera: music man celebrates years in show business with tell-all book - Quincy Jones - Brief Article
Ebony, Jan, 2002 by Charles Whitaker
QUINCY Jones, the 68-year-old music mogul, is known at "Q" and that could very well stand for the "Quintessential Hollywood insider." For in a breathtaking career that has spanned more than 50 years, Q seems to have known and/or collaborated with every major musician, singer, songwriter, actor and director to grace the planet in the latter half of the 20th century.
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In his new memoir Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones, Q takes stock of the tumultuous journey that has been his life and career. The book and its accompanying four-CD box set are like a trek through a show business hall of fame. It seems that Quincy Jones, who describes himself as a "bebop version of Forrest Gump," has rubbed elbows with everyone who's anyone in entertainment. He has played in bands with Lionel Hampton and Count Basie, produced records with everyone from Ella Fitzgerald and Aretha Franklin to Tone Loc and Queen Latifah. He is the man who "discovered" Oprah Winfrey's acting talent and put her in movies (The Color Purple), and helped make Michael Jackson's Thriller a monster hit. With the diplomatic skill of Colin Powell, he assembled some of the biggest names and egos in the music business for the historic recording of the 1984 "We Are The World" single, the proceeds from which raised $60 million for famine relief in Africa. His reach has extended beyond music into every facet of the entertainment industry. He has produced television shows, films and Broadway plays. And along the way, he has collected virtually every major show business award, including 26 Grammys.
It has been a stunning professional ride, one that has taken Jones from his impoverished childhood on the South Side of Chicago to his power seats alongside the titans of politics and corporate America.
But life for Jones has not been all work. His romantic collaborations, which he chronicles candidly in his book, have been as vast and varied as his musical ones. Married three times, he has seven children, including his youngest daughter, 6-year-old Kenya, born to Jones and actress Natassja Kinski. Despite a tendency to throw himself into his work, Jones says he has tried to remain a vital part of his children's lives and a friend to his past lovers. (Two of his ex-wives, Jeri Caldwell-Jones and Peggy Lipton, contribute chapters to his book.)
But Jones confesses that music and work have been his abiding and consuming passions. Those, combined with his drive to succeed, have shaped and guided his remarkable life. "I have been driven all my life by a spirit of adventure and a criminal level of optimism," he writes. "The people who make it to the top--whether they're musicians or great chefs or corporate honchos--are addicted to their calling. You have to honor the gift that God has given you."
COPYRIGHT 2002 Johnson Publishing Co.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group
