For the average music fan, Quincy Jones was one of the greatest contemporary producers, a huge figure responsible for some of the most important albums of all time. For those who work in the music industry it was something more. He has covered every role in the music business. He was so prolific that we could ignore the albums he produced, the films he set to music and the soundtracks he arranged and in all likelihood his recording career would still be legendary. The footnotes to his story would be seminal moments for anyone else.
“People say it was a once-in-a-generation phenomenon, but that's not the case,” says Naima Cochrane, a board member of the Black Music Action Coalition and a professor at the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music from NYU. «It's even rarer. Not once in a lifetime, but once in history. If he hadn't taken on so many other projects, from production to soundtracks, he would have been at the level of Clarence Avant.”
Jones was one of the first black men to run a major record label, he produced successful musicals and television shows, he mentored and signed great artists, he was the co-founder of one of the most authoritative music magazines ever. His time at Mercury Records in the early 1960s is one of his least remembered exploits, but it has tremendous importance. After taking his first steps in jazz, he served as the label's musical director and then, in 1961, was named vice president – one of the first times a black man took on a management role at a white-owned label .
“I'm surprised this isn't talked about more often,” Cochrane says. «It was a time when segregation still existed and this was a huge thing. Up until that point he had been associated with Frank Sinatra and had worked in France and therefore was treated as different. He wasn't there to work on black music, people didn't think of him as a black record producer. He was Quincy and that was it.”
Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy and one of many in the industry to consider Jones a mentor, says the job was a turning point in the history of the modern music industry. “He was one of the first black musicians and executives that some white-owned companies trusted. Seeing someone like him reach a position of power was unique.”
According to the New York Timeshe held that role at Mercury for less than a year, but it wasn't his last time at the helm of a record label. In 1980 he co-founded Qwest Records, overseeing a roster that included Sinatra, Tevin Cambell and George Benson. The first release was Give Me the Night by Benson, which went platinum and won the jazz guitarist three Grammys. “I had started to move away from jazz a little and Quincy asked me, 'Do you want to make the greatest jazz record in the world or do you want to go all the way?'” Benson told the Guardian in 2019. «I had seen what he had done with Off the Wall by Michael Jackson. He told me: “Trust me, I know more about you than you know yourself.” At first I was offended, but then I calmed down and things started to go in the right direction.”
Qwest's greatest success, however, came when the label signed New Order, launching them in the United States. “When he signed us to his label, he made us feel welcome,” Peter Hook wrote in X this week. «He made us great in America. He was humble and kind, you immediately fell in love with him.”
Jones went into the production of The color purple (1985) e Willy, the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990). In 1993 he co-founded the magazine Vibe to give space to artists of color whose Rolling Stone he didn't care. «We often forget that behind Vibe there was Quincy, because the magazine grew to become a brand in itself and was no longer simply its emanation”, explains Cochrane. According to Mason Jr., «Quincy at a certain point was able to say: I can use my brand, my taste, my ability to understand what is excellent and what consumers will like. To do that, you have to know your consumers very well and be an experienced businessman.”
According to Cochrane and Mason Jr., Jones' qualities as a producer enhanced his ability as a businessman, particularly in the fields of talent scouting and quality control. His generosity is a key aspect of his legacy to other artists and record companies. “It's amazing how many people spent time with Quincy,” says Mason Jr. “He dedicated so much time to people, to helping them. It wasn't just emails or answering phone calls. It's full of Instagram posts of people sitting with him, on his couch. Thousands in this industry have shared anecdotes about him and specifically said that he was their mentor.”
He had great commercial acumen, but calling him just a record producer would be an understatement. «Quincy's eternal love was music first and foremost. He only liked the business because it was the way to make money from music culture,” Cochrane says. «I believed him when he said that his decisions were not driven by money. He was first and foremost a musician and I don't think he could ever have been just a record producer.”
His influence has been felt for decades. “I think the most important thing about the Quincy record is that we all finally found a person of color in a position of power in the industry,” says Mason Jr. “He opened so many doors and was a guide for many. I wouldn't have learned anything I know if it weren't for Quincy. I wouldn't have made music. I wouldn't have been a producer. I never thought I could do film and television or run a business. I don't do anything that I haven't learned from him.”
From Rolling Stone US.
