Quincy Jones - Jump Street Profile - Part 1

n Quincy Jones over the years has developed um just so many things about the industry he has uh become hip to and uses it to its benefit his maximum I've heard some things that he's done on other recordings that just blow your mind and if you've ever heard of Quincy Jones record or something that was produced by Quincy Jones you know what I mean M it's always unusual always very clean very professionally done and there's always something in it that's really memorable about the recording and so he's a person that uh uh you can bet

uh knows exactly what he's doing and knows exactly what he wants to do and yet you seem to be very free and relax in what you were do in here I am because when talking to Quincy he told me well after feeling me out and getting to understand a little bit about my concept and knowing how loose I am about things you know I never get uh to the point where I can't um uh be flexible about something because rigid is like a tree I think you know you can't bend if you uh if you

can't bend when the wind break MH and so uh I think he he knows that about me and so he has arranged things and he told me U he said George don't worry about a thing does sound okay it's going to be great yeah bill with fine going be better than great we're talking about George bensson being to me uh the greatest uh guitarist I have ever worked with and the greatest saying something it it is saying something I you know I mean that from the bottom of my heart he is a a consument musician

when we say let's take the key down a half step he's bang it's right half step down let's take it up a fourth it's there and that in the last 5 years is a incredible Revelation for me a lot I love that that that concept of uh we can move around a little bit you know and that means that the man has flexibility he has chops uh he's got the musicianship and everything by chops you mean that he has uh the skills yes he has which he earned as a musician that went through the streets

wherever you want to go to get his ability to uh you know the in in a nutshell the what I'm talking about is that here's a man that said didn't ask the question how do I get over how do I get better and better that's what he said and better and better and better and that's the school I came from how in the world did you had 14 happen to be playing horn for Billy Holiday well there was a guy named Joseph Po in Seattle that used to be with wings over Jordan he was the

choir director for Wings Over Jordan and he had a dance band in a Navy Band over there and I was inspired uh by his band so much so that uh he used to hire me as his babysitter and I used to take the job as his babysitter so I could can sit down and read his orchestration books and see how Ford trombones played together how Ford trumpets played together and how Ford trumpets and for Tron play together and what made a big band work how could 18 musicians play together simultaneously and um that band uh

plus a guy named bumps Blackwell bumps you know bumps Blackwell right bumps Blackwell junor band and uh when I joined bumps Blackwell's Junior band we had a little eight piece band we had a little 16 piece band and when cab Callaway came to town we played the job with cab Callaway and um Bobby tuu came in town with Billy Holiday when I was 14 years old in what town Seattle Seattle Washington and he came in town and I had just learned how to read if you want to call it that and we played with Billy

Holiday now you scored films you scored the the weiz the Heat of the Night a whole I'm just a 33 films uh and yet you still seen fresh about it I mean each each project seems to find a fresh vital Quincy Jones how do you do that how do you decide for example on what the theme's going to be for this it's very easy you you say that every day it's a brand new day and it's what you know you call present time you say it is right now it's got nothing to do with what

happened yesterday it's what's happening right now all right now in this session you've gotten together um not just George Benson but really A A A what would you call it a team a company a family it is a creators tell us about that and how you go about doing that well the uh when you're talking about a record you know uh I I like to uh really to the same uh it it the analogy is uh it's just like a film and if you're going to it's like making a film exactly like making a film

and if you're going to going to uh put the analogy of a film it starts with a script and a cast mhm in the uh sense of a record the cast is the artist and the script is a song the material it's identical there's no no no difference um the difference in the record business is uh you can start out with the cast first and then find the script later you would say that all right I'm going to record George Benson so I want a certain quality of sound with George I want a certain uh

musical family around him I know the caliber of background singers the style of background singer I need for this I know the kind of C is I need for this is this what you're doing who are some of the other people who were involved in it how were they the other people are involved are the girl that was on the session tonight Patty Austin who the din Washington uh introduced me to her when she was 3 years old she's been I think one of the Geniuses of the record business you know for the last 28

years out of 85% of all the commercials on uh television you know she's involved in about 85 or 90% of all the commercials what makes her so good I God gave her a gift and she developed it what was the gift the gift was automatic retention of any sound she came she was confronted with we would do 11 takes with Dina and Clifford Brown and and comparable type musicians were would uh play ad lip solos ad lip solos with her on every take Patty could sing back every take Dina Washington did and note for note

what Dina did even her goo and she could also sing back all the solos that Clifford Brown sang played she could sing everything back at 3 years old wow what a it's incredible