QUINCY JONES -- THE CMW INTERVIEW
"Legend" is a word that gets tossed around lightly these days, but in the case of Quincy Jones, it is perfectly appropriate. And not just because he won a Grammy Legend Award in 1991. But after six decades in the entertainment industry, a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, 7 Academy Award nominations, and the Academy's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, Q's legacy is secure.
So it was with great pleasure that on Saturday, May 10th as part of the 2014 Music Summit, Canadian Music Week presented a Celebrity Interview with Quincy at the Toronto Marriot Hotel. Conducted by Ross Porter, broadcast executive of JAZZ.FM91, and named to the Order of Canada in 2013 for his own contributions to broadcasting, the hour-long interview covers the width and breadth of Q's career, running the gamut of popular music in the 20th century through blues, jazz, pop, film scores, rhythm and blues, soul and hip-hop. Quincy worked with, as the phrase goes, "everyone who's anyone", from Lionel Hampton to Tupac Shakur, Frank Sinatra to Michael Jackson, from Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan to Lesley Gore and Nikki Yanofsky, and many, many others too numerous to mention, in roles as diverse as jazz trumpeter, band leader, arranger, composer and producer.
In a wide ranging, almost free-association, conversation so apt for a jazz musician, Q reminisces, remonstrates, philosophizes, pontificates, entertains and illuminates the delighted crowd. This interview just scratches the surface of an amazing life, and as Quincy Jones himself says, "Life is the most amazing journey."
Check out the Q&A that occurred immediately after this interview here:
• Quincy Jones - Q&A