QUINCY JONES: THE MANY LIVES OF Q
In a career spanning six decades, American jazz musician, film composer, arranger, record producer and entrepreneur Quincy Jones has won more Grammy awards than any other artist. His list of other honours includes an Emmy for his work on the seminal American television series Roots and an Oscar for his humanitarian work.
This documentary celebrates the life and career of the man who helped make Michael Jackson the king of pop, arranged Frank Sinatra's Fly Me To The Moon, wrote the score for The Italian Job, produced the world's top selling album and single and helped launch the careers of Oprah Winfrey and Will Smith.
At the heart of this film is a wide-ranging interview with Quincy himself, in which he talks candidly about his work and personal life, covering the highs and lows, the triumphs and the tragedies. Family, friends and stars from the music and film industries provide an insight into the man and his unique genius. The film illustrates the key stages in Quincy's life, including previously unseen home movies and studio footage from his personal archive.
The film looks at Quincy's childhood in Chicago, and reveals how he discovered music almost by chance and features his first professional engagement at the age of 18, playing trumpet in the Lionel Hampton band. It also charts his Hollywood career writing music for some of the most iconic films of the 1970s and concludes with his life-threatening brain aneurysm.
It charts Quincy's recovery from a brain anyeurism and looks at how he went on to produce the biggest selling album of all time, Michael Jackson's Thriller. He also produced and conducted 1985's We Are the World - the American music industry's response to the Ethiopian famine - which is still the biggest selling single of all time. That same year he ventured into new territory, turning Hollywood producer for The Color Purple.
Quincy returned to music with the iconic 1989 album Back on the Block, cross-fertilising the talents of 66 artists including Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Patti Austin and six young rappers. The programme also looks at the launch of his television company, his conducting of Phil Collins's Big Band, his remixing of the iconic British dance hit Blue Monday, his humanitarian work in Africa and his mentoring younger musicians.
Contributors include Quincy himself, brother Richard, Harry Belafonte, Michel Legrand, Herbie Hancock, Michael Caine, jazz photographer Herman Leonard, children Martina and Quincy Jones III and former wife Peggy Lipton, and there is footage of Frank Sinatra, Dinah Washington, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie and Ray Charles. Also contributing are Lionel Richie, Phil Collins, Bob Geldof, Bernard Sumner, Patti Austin, the major players on Thriller - Rod Temperton (British songwriter), Bruce Swedien (recording engineer), Steve Lukather (guitarist) and Q's daughter Kidada. There's also footage of a 1980's Michael Jackson, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis and Quincy's ex-partner/actress Nastassja Kinski. (01:55:00)