{"id":1428,"date":"2010-11-15T12:47:11","date_gmt":"2010-11-15T17:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=1428"},"modified":"2010-12-20T21:44:15","modified_gmt":"2010-12-21T02:44:15","slug":"book-q-the-autobiography-of-quincy-jones-2003","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=1428","title":{"rendered":"Book: Q – The Autobiography of Quincy Jones (2003)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Book Reviews<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Rating: Excellent<\/p>\n

Publisher: Doubleday\u00a0\/ ISBN: 0-385-48896-3\u00a0\/ Format: Hardcover\u00a0\/\u00a0Date: 2002<\/p>\n

Author: Quincy Jones<\/p>\n

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Special Notes: \u00a0This review also compares the audiobook, read by Quincy Jones, and published by Simon & Schuster Audio (2003), ISBN 0-7435-00601<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

2001 was a busy year for legendary composer, musician, producer, and humanitarian Quincy Jones. Though best-known as the impresario behind Michael Jackson’s 1983 monster albumThriller<\/strong>, Jones broke down colour barriers in the music industry in becoming the first African-American vice-president Mercury’s New York division, in 1961.<\/p>\n

By the end of the decade, Jones had become a top film composer, receiving two Oscar nominations in 1967 – Best Original Score for\u00a0In Cold Blood<\/strong>, and Best Original Song for “The Eyes of Love,” from\u00a0Banning<\/strong> – and a Best Original Song nomination in 1968, for the theme fromFor Love of Ivy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Since retiring from film composing after Steven Spielberg’s\u00a0The Color Purple<\/strong>,<\/em> in 1985, little attention has been paid to his film music period. The 1991 documentary by Ellen Weissbrod,Listen Up: The Lives of Quincy Jones<\/strong>, gave his film work short-shrift, and it was more a showcase for textured sound and picture editing techniques than anything else.<\/p>\n

Although still quite active with his label – Qwest Records – and having released an album in 1995 –\u00a0Q’s Jook Joint<\/strong> – the 69 year old legend finally took time out to write his autobiography and record an audio book – both published in 2001.<\/p>\n

Jones’ prose is lean, visceral, and honest: chronicling his early years as a troubled youth who, with the aid of friends, managed to steal and pine away military gear from a nearby base (including a four-foot battleship shell!); eating rats and squirrels because there were no alternatives; and breaking into the military base one night, where the sight of a dimly lit piano changed his life for the better.<\/p>\n

His struggle to learn every facet of music, and his friendships and tutelage with trumpet great Clark Terry and soul brother Ray Charles revealed Jones to be a man with an iron drive, and the hard ascent to the top eventually had Jones playing, orchestrating and conducting for such luminaries as Frank Sinatra, and Count Basie.<\/p>\n

After rising to the top of the jazz world, Quincy Jones decided to follow a childhood dream – to be a film composer – and moved to Paris, where he studied composition with Nadia Boulanger; he not only studied works by Igor Stravinsky, he met the man. Returning to the U.S., Jones’ first feature film score for director Sidney Lumet –\u00a0The Pawnbroker<\/strong> – in 1965 broke new ground by fusing jazz improvisation and chamber\/small orchestra underscore writing.<\/p>\n

Both the book and the audio tapes\/CDs contain a decent account of his life as an African-American film composer, and from several anecdotes it’s clear Jones’ friendship and professional relationships with Alfred Newman, Andre Previn and other peers proved the beauty of a musician’s mind looked past one’s colour; it’s the music that always matters.<\/p>\n

Very few specific scores are investigated in detail, and Jones’ brevity is more an attempt to keep a brisk pace, balancing all the dramatic chapters of his life. Film music admirers will still find a compelling read, though, and Jones’ audio book acts as a more intimate epilogue (albeit nearly seven hours).<\/p>\n

Q<\/strong> is unique, however, for including ‘testimonials’ from friends, family members, and ex-wives (including Peggy Lipton), and they take several of Jones’ weaknesses to task, particularly his failings with his children. Brutally honest, what ultimately emerges is a remarkable portrait of a dynamic creative force; a film composer who made his mark in Hollywood, and improved the film score language with rich blues, jazz and pop influences.<\/p>\n

To coincide with Quincy Jones’ autobiography, Rhino Records have also released a 4-CD set,\u00a0Q: The Musical Biography of Quincy Jones<\/strong> (Cat. #74363).<\/em> Disc 1 focuses on his jazz career, and Disc 2 showcases his film work. As is the nature of a sampler, one CD can’t possibly cover an artist’s entire output, but the Rhino set does feature a few score cuts new to CD, and rare theme singles, including Johnny Mathis singing the theme from\u00a0Mirage<\/strong>, and Shirley Horn’s rendition of “The Spell You Spin (The Web You Weave)” from A Dandy In Aspic<\/strong>. The remaining discs cover Jones jazz-pop fusion work, and his work as producer.<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2002 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Book Reviews<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Return to:\u00a0Home \/\u00a0Book Reviews . Rating: Excellent Publisher: Doubleday\u00a0\/ ISBN: 0-385-48896-3\u00a0\/ Format: Hardcover\u00a0\/\u00a0Date: 2002 Author: Quincy Jones . Special Notes: \u00a0This review also compares the audiobook, read by Quincy Jones, and published by Simon & Schuster Audio (2003), ISBN 0-7435-00601 . . Review: 2001 was a busy year for legendary composer, musician, producer, and humanitarian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[125],"tags":[139],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-n2","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1428"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1428"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1915,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1428\/revisions\/1915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}