Quincy Jones

Just heard Quincy Jones had died….Quincy was a father figure to me. What a a long and wonderful life he lived, with a big family who adored him, and a public who will live with the music he created for generations to come. 

I met Quincy back in 1979, he was a producer at Warner Brothers where I spent nearly every day trolling the halls and sticking my head in people’s doors.

While we were working on Pirates, Quincy sent me a note...

“Russ and Lenny played me “Skeletons”—Beautiful. Heartbreaking. I am so proud of you. —Quincy Jones”

Years later there was a tribute to Quincy in Seattle. He was from up there, so they laid claim to him and celebrated all the work he had done up to that point—which was, I am pretty sure, before Thriller. I lived up in Olympia with my family, so I headed to the tribute with mother in tow. He was so lovely to her, taking time to treat us both kindly, informally, personally. Like, He was a gentleman first, a musician second, and since he was one of the greatest forces in music, you can imagine what ‘gentleman’ might mean to me. From early swing to mid-century bop to the late King of Pop, he is part of the definition of every era in music. Talk about eras. Everyone felt important in his presence. That might account for him producing some of the greatest songs by the greatest artists in his lifetime.