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Homework Help: Music: Composers: Quincy Jones
by Maile Wilcox
Quincy Jones is a composer, conductor, trumpet player, arranger, and producer of the best selling album in the world, Thriller by Michael Jackson. He has won 29 Grammy’s, 7 Academy Award nominations, 1 Academy Award, 3 Golden Globe nominations, 4 Emmy nominations, 1 Emmy, 14 Image Awards, 8 Ebony Music Awards, 23 Humanitarian Awards, 26 Honorary doctorates/ academic awards. He went from the South Side of Chicago hanging out with gangs to Hollywood, California hanging out with Steven Spielberg and Michael Jackson.
When Quincy Jones was about six years old, his mother got sent away. She was later diagnosed with schizophrenia, a brain disease. His father could not take care of Jones and his little brother Lloyd, so he took them to their grandma’s house. She lived in a tiny house out in the country with no running water. He didn’t see his mom for a long time after that, and the few times he did see her, she was sick and couldn’t comprehend.
When Jones was attending Coontz Junior High he met the school bandleader Harold Jeans, who later became his music teacher. He tried out brass instruments and finally found the one he liked best: the trumpet. He was a child prodigy and playing trumpet got him into show business by making him famous. He played trumpet long before he ever arranged or conducted, although he found he liked the sound of a full orchestra better than one lone instrument.
Jones heard of teacher Nadia Boulanger from Lalo Schifrin, who toured with Dizzy Gillespie. That was Jones’ main reason for traveling to France that year in 1957. He wanted to study orchestration, counterpoint, and composition with her. Studying with her gave him an international reference. She later said that the two most influential people she knew were Quincy Jones and Igor Stravinsky.
When Jones was forty-two years old, he was diagnosed with Beri aneurysm.
That is when the main artery delivering blood to the right side of the brain pops, which is the equivalent to sixteen strokes. This can leave people blind, brain damaged, paralyzed, or all three. The doctors had to freeze his brain and drill his skull open to operate on his brain. After the seven and a half hour surgery, the doctors found another artery about to pop, so two months later, they had to go back in. Only one percent of people that get this survive it, so everybody thought he would die. He got to watch his own service because he survived. It was a good experience for him because the service was a concert with a lot of his good friends, and his family all came to see him.
Quincy Jones is an inspirational man. He literally went from rags to riches. He has done in less than one lifetime what many people only dream of doing. He has changed music forever. He showed that it’s the inside that counts. Quincy Jones has inspired many people including me.
Homework Help: Music: Composers
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