Just about everyone in music worshipped the work of the late, great Quincy Jones, among them Frank Sinatra, who not only gave the fabled musician and producer the nickname “Q,” but also bequeathed him a ring bearing the Sinatra family crest when Sinatra died in 1998.
Asked by “Sunday Morning” in 2008 what it was like to work with the Chairman of the Board, Jones replied, “You know, he had no gray. He either loved you or rolled over you in a Mack truck in reverse. There was nothing in-between!”
Jones was behind the scores for some 30 motion pictures, along with theme songs for TV classics like “Ironside” and “Sanford and Son.”
In 1985 he brought the world’s biggest stars together for “We Are the World” to raise money for famine relief – a feat all the more remarkable considering a decade earlier he had suffered two brain aneurysms so severe his doctors gave him only a one-percent chance of survival.
Loving friends had actually scheduled a memorial, a service that – some 30 days after being stricken – the recovering Jones was strong enough to attend, to enjoy songs from guests like Marvin Gaye, Sarah Vaughan and Ray Charles.
Quincy Jones, winner of 28 Grammy Awards, died last Sunday after living life his way.
“I don’t waste any moment of life,” he said. “I like to do all. I like good food and wine and beautiful women and beautiful music, whatever’s there, I’m interested in it, you know? You know, that’s what living’s about. You get all the rest you want when you’re gone.”
Quincy Jones was 91 years old.
From 1982: The eclectic Quincy Jones (YouTube Video)
