Producer Spotlight: Quincy Jones
- Feb 2, 2017
- 2 min read
If there were a list of most popular and most respected producers in the world, Quincy Jones would be at the top of the list for many critics and people. He is mostly known to wear many hats in the music industry as a producer, composer, musician, conductor, CEO of entertainment companies, and much more (Fresh Air, 2013). Over a span exceeding 60 years, he has been involved in multiple hits across a wide number of legendary artists, including the likes of Michael Jackson, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Sami Davis Jr., Aretha Franklin, Sarah Vaughan, and much more. A multiple-time Grammy Award winner and Academy nominee and has transcended mainstream 'Pop' music since the 1960s.
Although he has many roles and is very proficient in all roles of the production process, most of the roles were given to him by pressure or chance. After starting out as a musician in a live band and then working as a producer since the age of 18, he had been assigned roles to better the musicians he recorded with. Through composition and arrangement roles assigned to him, he had learned to be closer to musicians to help them showcase their sound even broader than he thought was great. At a point, he had worked with alto and trumpet players in The Adderleys working on the song "Frankie & Johnny" to which he thought sounded amazing before production. Yet the producer, Bobby Shad had demanded he find a studio, producer and handle arrangements in short notice, to which he did and handled more of the production process than Shad had contributed (Jackson, 2007).
Many producers and engineers that had worked with Jones admired and looked up to his professionalism and passion for quality while working with top musicians of the industry with a wide arsenal of audio equipment. Bruce Swedien assisted Jones in the production of Michael Jackson's 'Thriller', stating how important sonic quality is to Jones whilst utilising simple equipment. "Quincy said that working with me and moving my stuff from studio to studio was like working with the Fifth Army. You need to be that dedicated to the sonic of a project. You need to love what you do." Swedien continues to explain how the microphones used in the album for Michael was mostly an SM57 but had secrets behind the preamplifiers and so on to create one of the best sounding albums of all time (Future, 2009).
References:
Fresh Air. (2013, May 27). Quincy Jones: The fresh air interview. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2013/05/27/186052477/quincy-jones-the-man-behind-the-music
Future (2009, October 1). The making of Michael Jackson’s thriller. . Retrieved from http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/the-making-of-michael-jacksons-thriller-222109
Jackson, B. (2007). Retrieved from http://www.mixonline.com/news/profiles/mix-interview-quincy-jones/365878
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