I just watched Parks and Rec for the first time last month and didn't make the connection that she is his daughter.
I didn't connect John David Washington to Denzel until I looked him up.
>Marlon Brandon used to go cha-cha dancing with us. He could dance his ass off. He was the most charming motherfucker you ever met. He’d fuck anything. Anything! He’d fuck a mailbox. James Baldwin. Richard Pryor. Marvin Gaye.
>He slept with them? How do you know that?
>[Frowns.] Come on, man. He did not give a fuck! You like Brazilian music?
What were your first impressions of the Beatles?
That they were the worst musicians in the world. They were no-playing motherfuckers. Paul was the worst bass player I ever heard.
And Ringo?
Don’t even talk about it. I remember once we were in the studio with George Martin, and RingoJones arranged a version of “Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing” for Starr’s 1970 solo debut album Sentimental Journey, which was produced by the Beatles’ frequent collaborator George Martin. The song, and album, are more than a bit gloopy. had taken three hours for a four-bar thing he was trying to fix on a song. He couldn’t get it. We said, “Mate, why don’t you get some lager and lime, some shepherd’s pie, and take an hour-and-a-half and relax a little bit.” So he did, and we called Ronnie Verrell, a jazz drummer. Ronnie came in for 15 minutes and tore it up. Ringo comes back and says, “George, can you play it back for me one more time?” So George did, and Ringo says, “That didn’t sound so bad.” And I said, “Yeah, motherfucker because it ain’t you.” Great guy, though.
> But you know who sings and plays just like Hendrix?
> Who?
> Paul Allen
[The Microsoft co-founder and multibillionaire has a collection of yachts and guitars to rival the world’s finest, both of which he apparently makes good use of...]
> Stop it. The Microsoft guy?
> Yeah, man. I went on a trip on his yacht, and he had David Crosby, Joe Walsh, Sean Lennon — all those crazy motherfuckers. Then on the last two days, Stevie Wonder came on with his band and made Paul come up and play with him — he’s good, man.
But violins are just an instrument, no more sophisticated or less than any other arrangement choice. Now the complexity is in the rhythmic interactions, and the timbral palette available to producers. The musicality of pop musicians and especially studio performers and producers is just unreal right now.
Other than that some of my favorites from the last approximate decade in no particular order (in format: album - artist) are froot - marina and the diamonds; I feel alive - TOPS; shabrang - sevdaliza; unfortunately, terror jr - terror jr; take me apart - kelela; somewhere in between - verite; dogviolet - laurel; empathogen - willow; expectations - hayley kiyoko; once twice melody - beach house; the fool - ryn weaver.
Pop is hard to define as a genre, particularly it tends to blend into r&b and indie rock so some people might categorize some these differently. And most are "indie pop" but afaict that's just pop by non-famous musicians. That ryn weaver album is probably the best in the list, it's a monster masterpiece that deserves to be more widely known.
But I still miss some of the subtle harmonics from edits like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVhl896h2NI . There are other studio sessions with isolated vocals which afaik are not made this way anymore
ps: ryn makes good pop, colorful, but i don't know, maybe a different approach to voicings, it's missing something
psedit: fixed link
If you like knower and thundercat there is a ton of great music that in that intersection of funk, pop, contemporary jazz. I was trying to stick to more "straight pop." Anyway with those guys I don't think the musicianship or sophistication is remotely in dispute.
There is a great podcast called Switched on Pop, which delves into music theory behind pop hits and their songwriting and arrangements, and analyzes them to show what makes them great. It will give you fresh perspective on how much thought and talent goes into some of these songs. https://switchedonpop.com/
I am sure someone can figure out which song it is. While the music sounds great and sells, my theory is that it comes as a result of losing music classes in many public schools. Over decades it has led to a loss of complexity.
Then again, I am probably just old.
It wouldn't be terribly surprising if it's the audience that has dragged things towards simplicity.
Could also be the homogenizing effect of recommendation algorithms that select for mass appeal, a song that everyone likes at an average of 7/10 is selected for way harder than a song that 50% of people like at an average of 9/10.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billie_Jean#Production
Jackson disagreed with the producer, Quincy Jones, about the song. According to some reports, Jones felt it was too weak to be included on Thriller, but Jones has denied this. Jones disliked the demo and did not care for the bassline, and wanted to cut Jackson's 29-second introduction. Jackson, however, insisted that it be kept. According to Jones, he conceded when Jackson said it made him want to dance: "And when Michael Jackson tells you, 'That's what makes me want to dance', well, the rest of us just have to shut up."
https://www.mixonline.com/recording/mix-interview-quincy-jon...
What is less well known is Quincy Jones’ involvement with computing. At one point he was on the advisory committee for the ACM Computers in Entertainment Magazine (https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/973801.973803), and if I remember correctly, he was on the board of former Xerox PARC researcher Alan Kay’s Viewpoints Research Institute. I’ve been wanting to know more about Quincy Jones’ involvement with computing since I first learned about this a few years ago.
Rest in peace. Quincy Jones is a legendary figure.
Bonus cute video of Hancock showing the Fairlight off on Sesame Street: https://youtube.com/watch?v=daLceM3qZmI
The Fairlight is being used as a drum machine. The Fairlight's keyboard controller is the one he points to at around 30s. The Fairlight's screen sequencer - called Page R - was easier than keyboard entry for drum and bass line programming.
I don't think Hancock did any development work or had any customisation done. (Except for the black case for the keyboard. Usually they were PC beige.)
It's fascinating this tech still has a legendary aura even though it's forty years old and has been completely outclassed by a cheap modern laptop and MIDI controller.
As for Quincy - a lot of people think talent is really just effort. But some people just have it - a deep instinctive feel for what they're doing - and he clearly did.
Also, he worked on debt forgiveness in African countries.
Also, he studied music composition with Nadia Boulanger (who taught Aaron Copland and many other classical composers) and studied harmony with Olivier Messiaen.
Also, he wrote the television theme song to Red Foxx's "Sanford and Son," plus a lot of other popular themes.
In fact, every time someone is about to get killed in Kill Bill[1], you hear a sample of music written by Quincy Jones.
1: except for Bill.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=FF258xH5bNw
The video is not authentic, but it should have been.
Alan Kay knew him from before then. On Kay Savetz's podcast, one of Alan Kay's researchers at Atari (Donald Dixon) in the early eighties recounted meeting Quincy Jones when he was being shown around the lab.
https://users.cs.duke.edu/~rodger/articles/AlanKay70thpoints...
https://djcj.website/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/denim_turnta...
My mom had a copy of Ray Charles' greatest hits. My favorite song was One Mint Julep. Quincy Jones did the arrangement. You can see by the wear on this record how much I listened to that song, as well as "Unchain My Heart" and "Hit the Road Jack."
https://djcj.website/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/one-mint-jul...
So much great music. And when you watch interviews with other musicians with whom he crossed paths, they all talk about what an uplifting and positive influence he had on their lives.
Here's a interview with his longtime collaborator Tom Bähler. He has some really beautiful stories about his experiences with Quincy.
https://youtu.be/yIkP_XuIDeY?t=5197
And when he got together with Rod Temperton, the magic was next-level.
https://www.facebook.com/QuincyJones/posts/ill-never-forget-...
And for fans of video game music: that song inspired this little bit from the 8-bit big band: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6hJvSkVLXs
The Wii interface was a high watermark of style. Nintendo was clearly riding high aping aspects of Apple style in the 2000s but adding all the audio personality made it their own. Others were also invested in making something unique for the TV as an interface paradigm (Xbox 360 Blades, PS2/3 "orchestra" themes). Most of that has died away for practicality (and maybe accessibility) sake now, to flat boxes with minimal animation and no sound.
I looked it up, and all the Wii system audio was done by the same composer that did Pikmin, as well as dozens of other core (but secondary) Nintendo IP over the decades.
Nintendo appears to make the musical elements of its work a priority and it's good to see it escaping the game console into live performance -- following in the footsteps of both show tunes and movie music..
Over the decades since I graduated, I've taken some time to learn about the incredible influence he's had on the arts. Just recently, I learned that an actor I've watched in a few shows, Rashida Jones, is his daughter.
To briefly answer your question, his occupation was producer, arranger, composer and songwriter. Such folks often don't get name recognition without extensive self-promotion. You might be familiar with his work, without learning his name because he wasn't on the headline. But his work went deeper than that -- he was a community builder; that's work which is hard to measure the value of: to anybody that doesn't post here... who is Paul Graham?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garfield_High_School_(Seattle)
and this https://song.link/i/1440648907 "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to" Wait wut? Yes. Quincy.
and this https://song.link/i/1434895053 Dinah Washington. "Mad about the boy". Yup. Quincy
and "We are the world", and The brothers johnson and some stuff with Miles Davis and Sarah Vaughn and many many others. It's absolutely absurd that one person did that range of things.
That anything I can feel, I can notate musically. Not many people can do that. I can make a band play like a singer sings. That’s what arranging is, and it’s a great gift. I wouldn’t trade it for shit.
https://www.vulture.com/article/quincy-jones-in-conversation...
What a fucking flex lol
I love the Beatles but it's endlessly hilarious to me
Quincy Jones (and Russell Simmons) were there to induct Jermaine Dupri. https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/28th-annual-georgia-music...
Such an amazing guy, who'd done so much, and still obviously just loved the craft.
(Gregg Allman was also there, who passed in 2017, but at the time was still doing 6 hour live shows with new talent he wanted to introduce. Security guard when we showed up to his concert an hour late: "Naw, man, Gregg goes until 1 or 2am")
My favorite two tidbits: - Sinatra single-handedly forced casinos in Vegas to treat black performers properly. He was Big Mad when he found out Quincy and the black band members were forced to sleep across town from The Sands. - Buzz Aldrin played Quincy's arrangement of "Fly Me to the Moon" on the moon!
RIP Quincy, thanks for "only" twelve notes ;)
As he became better known, Hisaishi formulated an alias inspired by American musician and composer Quincy Jones: "Quincy", pronounced "Kuinshī" in Japanese, can be written using the same kanji in "Hisaishi"; and "Joe" came from "Jones".[1]
久石譲 = Kyū Ishi Jō = Quincy Jones, as it were...
Jimi Hendrix, on the other hand, got a small bust tucked into the back of the library, over the protests of various busybody types. Granted, he neither graduated nor celebrated his Garfield roots, but… come on.