The eye of the INA: Quincy Jones, “Paris, I love you 10,000 times”

In nearly 70 years of career, Quincy Jones has composed and orchestrated countless melodies that have become legendary. It has won 28 Grammy Awards and hung hundreds of gold and platinum records on its walls. How much exactly? He admitted that he did not know the exact number! If, in his time, Michael Jackson never failed to point out that he owed him Off the Wall, Thriller et Badwe often forget that the musician, also a producer, is, among other things, at the origin of some of the greatest hits of Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles, but also, among others, of the rhythms of Aerobics which is part from the legend of Jane Fonda.

Madelen invites you to discover or rediscover images summarizing a professional life which owes a lot to France. It was there, in fact, in 1957, that it all began. Passionate about music since his very young years, he decided at the age of 20 to take the music lessons for strings essential to realize his dream: to become an orchestra conductor. His African-American origins prohibiting him from entering all schools in New York, he breaks the bank and boards a boat for Le Havre. He knows that there is a class in Paris where foreigners, whatever their skin color, are admitted to learn the basics of classical. This is how he found himself, on rue Ballu, facing Nadia Boulanger, also director of the American Conservatory of Fontainebleau.

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Three times a week, in her apartment, this extraordinary teacher, whose friends are called Stravinsky, Gershwin and Ravel, teaches listening and analysis of scores, through what she has called “class of musical wonder”. The one that his students, including Michel Legrand, respectfully call « mademoiselle » is the first to believe in the talent of this 23-year-old apprentice musician. She encourages him to work tirelessly. He listens to her without arguing. Evoking this period much later, he said “she kept telling me: Quincy, there are only twelve notes. Until there is a thirteenth, learn everything you can about what others have done with these twelve notes. That’s exactly what I did.”.

He spent his nights in clubs, and began as a trumpet player in Lionel Hampton’s jazz orchestra. It was there that he was spotted by Eddie Barclay. Originally an orchestra conductor, a few years earlier he created a record label whose success made him “the king of the LP”. The mutual sympathy is immediate and will transform into an unwavering friendship. From their first exchanges, Eddie Barclay asked Quincy Jones to join his team of artistic directors. The musician who spent some time in Dizzy Gillespie’s training and then tried, in vain, to put on his own show, accepts without hesitation.

For five years, before returning to the United States, he spent days and nights in the studio and worked behind the scenes with Henri Salvador, Boris Vian, Jacques Brel, Charles Aznavour, Claude Nougaro and Nana Mouskouri. When, in 1960, he heard the tone of this shy young Greek woman, who had come to try her luck in France, he immediately believed in her future. It was thanks to him that she recorded an album of jazz classics in New York which opened the doors to an international career for him.

Until recent years Quincy Jones regularly made detours through France, in particular to attend the “White Nights” colorful paintings by Eddie Barclay, in his villa in Saint-Tropez. In 2015, he produced three tracks from Zaz’s album, Paris including a duet with Charles Aznavour. Finally, on June 27, 2019, he celebrated his 86th birthday by giving an exceptional concert in Bercy, in the presence of several generations of stars, from Nana Mouskouri to Ibrahim Maalouf via Véronique Sanson. “I’m so happy to come back home,” he said in French in front of the packed stands. I have lived 66 years of love with this city, its people, its dishes, its wines, its women. THANKS ! Paris, I love you 10,000 times! ». Her most beautiful love story.