Quincy Jones has passed away at the ripe old age of 91. For fans of jazz, soul, funk and blues, all Music created by African-American musicians then inspired by European harmonies, he was more than a giant: a true institution. Coming from a modest background, he shines shoes in the streets of Chicago while continuing an uneventful schooling in order to make ends meet. So it was on the sidewalk that he met a certain Ray Charles, three years his senior. Together, they form a duo that hits every club in the city. The opportunity to meet Clark Terry, one of the members of Count Basie's orchestra, who helped him improve his skills on the trumpet and piano, instruments he learned to play on his own.
At just 18 years old, Quincy Jones managed to win a scholarship to Berklee College of Music. Here it is launched. Quickly integrated into Lionel Hampton's training, he quickly excelled in the delicate science of arrangements; or the art of magnifying a melody. He wrote countless ones for stars such as Dinah Washington, Count Basie, Sarah Vaughan and… Ray Charles, of course.
Frank Sinatra, a funny guardian angel…
But here we are in the 60s and racial segregation is still a reality. One of the first to rebel against this racism then “ systemic », although he is no longer one today, is none other than Frank Sinatra. In his memoirs, Quincy (Robert Laffont), our man remembers: “ Frank was crazy about Count Basie's orchestra and he took us to Las Vegas in 1964. […] Just a few years earlier, Harry Belafonte, Fats Domino, Sammy Davis and Lena Horne were already performing in casinos, but eating in kitchens and sleeping in black hotels. Frank, who couldn't stand this kind of bullshit, gathered his bodyguards backstage and told them, “If anyone even looks askance at a musician in this orchestra, you'll break both their legs!” » Rudimentary anti-racism, certainly, but effective. It is true that Sinatra, an Italian-American of Catholic faith, had also had to suffer the latent racism of good society. WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) since his early childhood
It is even more true that since 1957, Quincy Jones has lived in France, hired as an arranger by Eddie Barclay, the owner of the records of the same name. There, racism is nothing more than a figment of his mind. And he works with the greatest (Jacques Brel and Charles Aznavour) without anyone being surprised. Better still: he perfected his skills thanks to the private lessons of Nadia Boulanger, the friend of Maurice Ravel, Francis Poulenc and Darius Milhaud, before becoming one of their protégés.
A well-deserved Legion of Honor
In short, between him and France, it is a romance that he will never forget: “ I feel eternal gratitude to France, where the burden of race no longer weighed on my shoulders. […] In France, I was finally able to embrace my past, my present and my future as an artist and a man of color. […] France treated me like an artist. Years later, in 1991, I was inducted into the order of the Legion of Honor*, created in 1802 by Napoleon. Thanks to France, I finally felt free and happy to be myself. »
Eddie Barclay was not for nothing in this revelation, inviting him to the best restaurants – the very ones he was not allowed to enter in the USA –, introducing him to the most beautiful women in Paris, inviting him to the the most exclusive parties where he charmed, among others, Brigitte Bardot, Simone Signoret, Grace Kelly and Édith Piaf.
Treated like a lord, it is therefore very logical that he behaves like one when he returns to America. There, he resumed his job as arranger for the greatest: Barbra Streisand and Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra and Nana Mouskouri. At the same time, he became a composer increasingly in demand by Hollywood. Among his masterpieces? In the heat of the night (1967), by Norman Jewison, a very clever and not Manichean anti-racist film for two cents. Then Ambush (1972), by Sam Peckinpah, where Toots Thielemans' harmonica works wonders, and finally The Color Purple (1985), by Steven Spielberg, which earned Quincy Jones two Oscar™ nominations.
The man behind Michael Jackson
His other hour of glory was obviously the production of three albums by Michael Jackson, which made this musician the world icon we know: Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982) et Bad (1987). But Michael Jackson quickly intends to stand on his own two feet and do without his mentor. His following records suffered and he never recovered. Quincy Jones does not conceive the slightest bitterness, preferring to continue his path by lining up increasingly majestic personal albums: once lord, always lord.
Today, may French music lovers have a heartfelt thought for the man who loved our old nation so much, the historic land of welcome for all these black musicians treated as foreigners in their own country, although given to be that of freedom. Because like any good man, Quincy Jones had two homelands. His and France.
*Jacques Chirac made him Commander of the Legion of Honor in 2001.
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