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PEOPLE & ARTS Saturday 22 September 2018

Quincy Jones at 85: ‘I’m too old to be full of it’

This Sept. 7, 2018 photo
By JAKE COYLE
Associated Press
TORONTO (AP) — Quincy
Jones holds out his hands.
Like Jones, an easy racon-
teur, they tell stories. There’s
a small scar from when
he, as a youngster in 1930s
Chicago, accidently wan-
dered into a gang’s territo-
ry. “They nailed my hand to
a fence with a switchblade,
man,” he says. Jones points
to a ring on his right pinkie
left to him by Frank Sinatra,
bearing the singer’s family
crest. It has stayed lodged
on his finger for years just at
it did on Sinatra’s.
“The friendship was so
strong. You can’t describe
it. We loved to party togeth-
er, make music together,”
says Jones, smiling. “I’d tell
(drummer) Sonny Payne:
‘Let’s get the back beat
a little stronger,’ because
Frank was only lifting his feet
about a foot,” says Jones,
stomping his foot to a beat. shows music producer Quincy Jones, the subject of the Netflix documentary film “Quincy,” posing for a portrait at the Shangri-La
“Let’s get a foot and a Hotel during the Toronto Film Festival in Toronto.
half.” For six decades Jones Associated Press
has been the foot-stomp- giving up drinking two and “Michael was one patient leaping from the experi- down (she was institution-
ing back beat to a stag- a half years ago, he says, “I and humble human being ence of being in the con- alized for schizophrenia)
gering breadth of Ameri- feel like I’m 19.” when it came to learning,” trol room for Miles Davis’ remains perhaps the most
can music. His hands have And he has lost little of his he adds. “His idols were “Kind of Blue” sessions to pivotal moment in his life.
been over everything. From curiosity or verve. Jones James Brown, Sammy Da- his celestial twin, Michael It’s impossible not to return
Ella Fitzgerald to Frank Sina- made headlines last winter vis, Fred Astaire, Gene Kel- Caine (they were born on to that incident and his
tra, Ray Charles to Michael for a pair of candid inter- ly. I saw him copying their the same day in 1933), to hardscrabble childhood
Jackson, “Roots” to “In the views in which he discussed, things.” And while he ap- when record executives in Chicago when trying to
Heat of the Night,” Jones — among other things, what plauds contemporary acts dubbed him “too jazzy” to answer where all the music
a trumpeter, pianist, com- he considered the Beatles’ like Chance the Rapper produce Marvin Gaye. came from in Jones. Such
poser, arranger, producer weak musicianship and and Kendrick Lamar, he be- “He is like a giant beating beginnings would have
— is the great chameleon dating Ivanka Trump. He lieves there are fewer great heart. That’s what makes made others more cynical.
of 20th century music. He later apologized but didn’t songs today. A master of him a great dad and that’s “You can’t afford to get
has recorded 2,900 songs, take back any of his tales. songcraft, Jones sees the what makes him a great angry, man,” says Jones.
300 albums and 51 film and “I’m too old to be full of it,” art form diminishing. “What musician,” says Rashida, “Remember Mark Twain’s
TV scores. He has been Jones chuckles. I’m missing the most is the the actress-filmmaker who words: Anger is an acid
79 times nominated for a And while Jones was in a songs,” says Jones. “There co-directed “Quincy” with which does more harm
Grammy, winning 27. And more relaxed mood in To- are beats and rhymes and Alan Hicks. “He’s got pain to the vessel in which it’s
he has produced seven ronto, he was happy to hooks but that’s not a song, like all of us. His stuff with stored than anything on
kids, one of whom — Rashi- contradict reports of the I’m sorry.” his mom is really deep. It’s which it’s poured. I said
da Jones — has chronicled Eagles’ “Their Greatest Hits But to give the impres- still fresh and it still hurts him. that to myself when Donald
him in the new documen- 1971-1975” passing Jack- sion that Jones has grown But he made a decision. He Trump won. Are you happy
tary, “Quincy.” son’s “Thriller” (which Jones quarrelsome in his old age wakes up every day and he with our president? We’ll
“When I look at it now, I’m produced) as the all-time would do a great injustice has mantras that he says to live through it. We’ll learn.”
overwhelmed,” Jones said best-selling album. “We to his playful inquisitiveness stay positive.” Jones calls Another foundational mo-
in an interview shortly be- had 150 million, man,” he or his undiminished work them affirmations. ment from his youth in when
fore “Quincy” premiered says, alluding to worldwide ethic. “Quincy,” which “I’ve always done that. I Jones, at 14, was a passen-
at the Toronto International sales. “That’s bull----.” spans Jones’ mammoth guess that’s in place of a ger in a fatal car accident.
Film Festival. “To have your Jones, who in 2017 won a life, captures the still-very- mother. I lost my mother He never learned to drive.
life jump back at you on suit against the Jackson es- active Jones producing a when I was seven. They “I took a driving lesson. My
the screen — wooo!” tate over unpaid royalties, Kennedy Center show for took her away in a strait- teacher — he was from
“Quincy,” which will debut also continued his critique the Smithsonian’s National jacket. That did not make Yugoslavia — said, ‘Man,
on Netflix and in select the- of the pop star’s penchant Museum of African Ameri- our lives very nice,” he says. I’m giving you your mon-
aters Friday, is an intimate for lifting songs or not ac- can History. “My brother could not deal ey back. We don’t need
portrait of a hard-to-sum- curately crediting collabo- Jones is both tireless and with it. He died in 1998, my another maniac on the
marize legend. He’s now rators. “It’s in the music. tirelessly upbeat. And his younger brother. It was seri- road,’” recalls Jones. “I was
85 and has been through a ‘Smooth Criminal,’ that conversation zig-zags as ous, man.” trying to stop on the down-
few health scares. But after says it,” says Jones. much as his career has, Jones’ mother’s break- beats at the stop lights.”q