Entertainment
Quincy Jones, the musical titan who collaborated with everyone from Michael Jackson to Ray Charles, dies at 91 – Andscape
Quincy Jones, multi-talented musical titan which is big heritage he produced Michael Jackson’s historic album, wrote award-winning soundtracks for movies and tv shows, and collaborated with Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles and tons of of other recording artists, died at the age of 91.
Jones’ publicist, Arnold Robinson, says he died Sunday night at his home in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles, surrounded by his family.
“Tonight, with full but broken hearts, we must share the news of the death of our father and brother Quincy Jones,” the family said in an announcement. “And while this is an incredible loss for our family, we celebrate the wonderful life he lived and know there will never be another like him.”
Jones rose from working with gangs on Chicago’s South Side to the heights of show business, becoming considered one of the first black executives to prosper in Hollywood and amass extraordinary music catalogue which incorporates a few of the richest moments of American rhythm and song. For years, it was difficult to discover a music lover who didn’t have at least one album with his name on it, or a pacesetter in the entertainment industry and beyond with whom he didn’t have any bond.
Jones kept company with presidents and foreign leaders, movie stars and musicians, philanthropists and business leaders. He toured with Count Basie and Lionel Hampton, arranged recordings for Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, composed soundtracks for and , organized President Bill Clinton’s first inaugural ceremony, and oversaw the all-star recording of “We Are the World,” a 1985 charity album. for famine in Africa.
Lionel Richie, who co-wrote “We Are the World” and was considered one of the lead vocalists, called Jones the “principal orchestrator.”
In a profession that began when vinyl records were still played at 78 rpm, top honors probably went to his productions with Jackson: , and the albums were almost universal in style and appeal. Jones’ versatility and imagination helped unleash Jackson’s explosive talent, which transformed him from child star to “King of Pop.” On such classic songs as “Billie Jean” and “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough,” Jones and Jackson created a world soundscape of disco, funk, rock, pop, R&B, jazz and African songs. For , a few of the most memorable touches got here from Jones, who recruited Eddie Van Halen for the guitar solo on the genre-mixing “Beat It” and enlisted Vincent Price to provide a spooky voice on the title track.
In 1983 alone, it sold over 20 million copies and equals, amongst others, The Eagles as the best-selling album of all time.
“If an album doesn’t do well, everyone says, ‘it’s the producers’ fault’; so if everything goes well, it should be your ‘fault’ as well,” Jones said in a 2016 interview with the Library of Congress. “Paths don’t suddenly appear. The producer must have the skills, experience and ability to see the vision through to completion.”
The list of his accolades and awards spans 18 pages in his 2001 autobiography, including 27 Grammy Awards (now 28), an honorary Academy Award (now two) and an Emmy for “Roots.” He also received the French Legion of Honor, the Rudolph Valentino Award from the Republic of Italy, and the Kennedy Center Tribute for his contributions to American culture. He was the subject of the 1990 documentary “Listen Up: The Lives of Quincy Jones” and the 2018 film by daughter Rashida Jones. His memoirs made him a best-selling writer.
Born in Chicago in 1933, Jones cited the hymns his mother sang around the house as the first music he remembered. But he recalled his childhood with sadness, once telling Oprah Winfrey: “There are two kinds of individuals: those who have caring parents or guardians and people who don’t. Nothing in between. Jones’ mother suffered from emotional problems and eventually entered care, which made the world seem “meaningless” to Quincy. He spent most of his time in Chicago on the streets, amongst gangs, stealing and fighting.
“Man, they nailed my hand to the fence,” he told the AP in 2018, showing off his childhood scar.
Music saved him. As a boy, he learned that a neighbor in Chicago had a piano, and shortly he was playing all of it the time. His father moved to Washington state when Quincy was 10, and his world modified at a close-by recreation center. Jones and a few friends broke into the kitchen and helped themselves to lemon meringue pie when Jones noticed a small room with a stage nearby. There was a piano on the stage.
“I went there, stopped, looked, and then jingled for a while,” he wrote in his autobiography. “That’s where I began to find peace. I used to be 11 years old. I knew this was it for me. Forever.”
Within a couple of years, he began playing the trumpet and befriended the young blind musician Ray Charles, with whom he became lifelong friends. He was talented enough to win a scholarship to Berklee College of Music in Boston, but dropped out when Hampton invited him to tour with his band. Jones continued to work as a contract composer, conductor, arranger and producer. As a young person, he supported Billie Holiday. At the age of twenty he was touring with his own band.
“We had the best jazz band in the world, and yet we were literally starving,” Jones later told Musician magazine. “That’s after I discovered that there was music and there was a music business. If I were to survive, I’d have to learn the difference between them.”
As a music executive, he overcame racial barriers to turn into vice chairman of Mercury Records in the early Sixties. In 1971, he became the first black musical director of the Academy Awards. The first film he produced received 11 Oscar nominations in 1986 (much to his disappointment, it didn’t win any). In cooperation with Time Warner, he created Quincy Jones Entertainment, which owned the popular culture magazine Vibe and Qwest Broadcasting. In 1999, the company was sold for $270 million.
“My philosophy as a businessman has always come from the same roots as my personal credo: accept talented people on your own terms and treat them fairly and with respect, no matter who they are or where they come from,” Jones wrote in his autobiography.
He was comfortable with virtually every kind of American music, whether setting Sinatra’s “Fly Me to the Moon” with its strong, rolling rhythm and wistful flute, or opening his production of Charles’ soulful “In the Heat of the Night” with a rousing tenor saxophone solo. He has collaborated with jazz giants (Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, Duke Ellington), rappers (Snoop Dogg, LL Cool J), singers (Sinatra, Tony Bennett), pop singers (Lesley Gore) and rhythm and blues stars (Chaka Khan, rapper and singer Queen Latifah).
Only in “We are the World” the performers were Michael Jackson, Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder and Bruce Springsteen. He co-wrote hits for Jackson – “PYT (Pretty Young Thing” – and Donna Summer – “Love Is in Control (Finger on the Trigger) – and sampled songs by Tupac Shakur, Kanye West and other rappers. He even composed the theme song for the series “Sanford and Son.”
Jones was a moderator and star maker. He gave Will Smith a key role on the hit television show produced by Jones, and in the process introduced viewers to Winfrey and Whoopi Goldberg. Starting in the Sixties, he composed over 35 soundtracks for movies, including:
He called scoring “a multifaceted process, an abstract combination of science and soul.”
Jones’ work on the film’s soundtrack led to his collaboration with Jackson, who starred in the 1978 film. In an essay published in Time magazine after Jackson’s death in 2009, Jones recalled that the singer kept sheets of paper with him containing the thoughts of famous thinkers. When Jones asked about the origin of 1 passage, Jackson replied “Socrates” but pronounced it “SO-crayts.” Jones corrected him: “Michael, they’re SOCK-ra-tees.”
“And the look he gave me then made me say, because I was so impressed with everything I saw in him during rehearsals, ‘I’d like to try producing your album.'” Jones recalled. “Then he came back and told the people at Epic Records and they said, ‘No way. Quincy is too jazzy». Michael was stubborn, so he and his managers came back and said, “Quincy is producing the album.” And we started doing it. Ironically, it was one of the best-selling Black albums at the time and the album saved the jobs of people saying I was the wrong guy. That’s how it works.”
Tensions emerged after Jackson’s death. In 2013 Jones sued Jackson’s estateclaiming he’s owed multimillion-dollar royalties and charges for producing a few of the superstar’s biggest hits. In a 2018 interview with New York magazine, he called Jackson “as Machiavellian as possible” and alleged that he drew material from others.
Jones was addicted to work and play and sometimes suffered due to it. He nearly died of a brain aneurysm in 1974 and fell right into a deep depression in the Eighties when Oscar voters rejected “The Color Purple”; it never received a competitive Oscar. Jones, a father of seven children and five moms, described himself as a “dog” who had countless lovers around the world. He was married 3 times, his wives included actress Peggy Lipton.
“For me, loving a woman is one of the most natural, blissful, life-enhancing – and dare I say, religious – acts in the world,” he wrote.
He was not an activist in his youth, but he modified after attending the funeral of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 and later becoming friends with the Reverend Jesse Jackson. Jones dedicated himself to philanthropy, saying that “the best and only useful aspect of fame and celebrity is having a platform from which to help others.”
His goals included fighting HIV and AIDS, educating children, and caring for the world’s poor. He founded Quincy Jones Listen Up! foundation designed to connect young people with music, culture and technology, and said that throughout his life he had been guided by “a spirit of adventure and a criminal level of optimism.”
“Life is like a dream, said the Spanish poet and philosopher Federico Garcia Lorca,” Jones wrote in his memoirs. “Mine was in Technicolor, with full Dolby sound thanks to THX amplification, before they knew what these systems were.”
In addition to Rashida, Jones is survived by daughters Jolie Jones Levine, Rachel Jones, Martina Jones, Kidada Jones and Kenya Kinski-Jones; son Quincy Jones III; brother Richard Jones and sisters Theresa Frank and Margie Jay.
Entertainment
Denzel Washington cuts off repeated questions about his past during a tense exchange with a reporter.
It’s been a few weeks since Denzel Washington fans saw the actor running away from paparazzi in New York City. The shocking incident was captured on video and bears little resemblance to his demeanor in one other interview through which Washington appeared exasperated.
The same moment through which the seemingly hot-tempered artist was interviewed in 2010 resurfaced and caused more shock.
A fan reposted an ungainly interview through which Washington sits across from a reporter and asks him about the upcoming film “Unstoppable,” to which he responds tersely.
“How did it feel to climb on a moving train?” she asked, to which he replied, “Eh, you know… you get used to it.”
He then says, “You have had some amazing co-workers who stand out. When you look back at some of the most amazing talents, who do you think stands out?” and Washington replies, “I do not look back. What for?
The interviewer continued speaking, maintaining a skilled calm. “So what do you do – is there someone you want to work on, something you still want to achieve?” she asked. “You know I want to have a good day today,” he said. “I want to achieve it and I strive for it every day.”
She then asked Washington if winning two Oscars was the highlight of his profession. He replied, “We’re back in the past again.” Giggling, she said, “because I want to show all these wonderful things.”
At this point, while talking to herself, Washington was the primary to interrupt her, saying, “You have a specific plan. Okay, just tell me what you want and maybe I can help you with it. Yes, I won two Oscars.”
He softens a bit when he starts talking about the talent that Angelina Jolie and Dakota Fanning have. However, Washington later points out that the interviewer desires to proceed dwelling on his previous works, which seems to annoy him.
She asks him about Alonzo Harris and dealing with him on “Training Day,” the film that won Washington his second Academy Award.
“Training day!? Yes, yes, it was good,” he said, then smiled sarcastically and added: “You keep going back to the past. Have you cracked your case?
Before hanging up, the interviewer shakes his hand to rise up and leave, and he replies, “Now you’ve gotten to send me this clip. I need to see what you connected. It’s pressure.
Fans were shocked by Washington’s behavior within the video, with some saying he was a bit rough. One person said: “There is not any must treat someone this fashion. It doesn’t matter how big you might be…”
Someone else wrote: “He has a nasty streak. No wonder he can play such characters with surprising intensity.”
Some fans offered other perspectives. One said: “The interviewer desired to do a profession retrospective, probably because she really admired his body of labor. Denzel was there to hype up his movie, it was business and I feel that is why he was frustrated. Talking about Training Day won’t make you go see a movie about his runaway train.
Another wrote: “Actors and their studios comply with a majority of these interviews to advertise a newly or recently released movie. Don’t let the interviewer, talk show host or anyone else sit and reflect on the actors’ past work.”
“I’m sitting in a hotel corridor with dozens of reporters from all over the world. And wait for hours,” she said within the article Australian outlet, baby.
She continued: “Crowds of young publicists are flying up and down, barely concealing their panic. “He came,” I hear considered one of them whisper, “But he doesn’t want to leave the room.” An hour later, as one other runs past, I hear a breathless, “I want more tea.”
As she waited patiently, Washington finally appeared: “Huge, graceful, gorgeous, and full of attitude (and probably tea).”
The same awkward interaction occurred between Washington and a group of photographers from the Museum of Modern Art in New York. While posing for photos, someone in the gang shouts, “Show us some love.”
The “Fences” actor walks as much as the guy and says, “Yo, yo, yo… put it down. You’re talking to a man now, he said. “I heard you. You talk about “showing love” and this and that. How about… respect me?
One of the paparazzi guests continued: “We always do this.” Washington replied with an annoyed look on his face, “I said I’d see you when I get out. What part of this don’t you understand?”
He added: “Or not. We can do it one other way. I can do that in additional ways than one, y’all. Can you’re feeling me?
Jordan’s Chiles will likely always remember the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. While Chiles’ profession reached latest heights this summer, the gymnast suffered a “significant blow” when Romania’s team challenged her bronze medal, arguing that it must have been awarded to her competitor, Ana Barbosu.
Forced to return her medal, the Team USA gymnast is still working to maneuver forward after a heartbreaking title change. In a recent interview with CNNChiles explained how this example taught her the importance of “standing your ground.”
“Things can be really difficult in your life and they can be taken away from you and you’re going to have to deal with that and understand that you have to fight for what you’re fighting for,” she told the publication. “And I’ve learned the same thing over the last three or four months that I’ve been leaving Paris.”
As theGrio previously reported, Chiles and her lawyers filed an appeal in September regarding the reallocation of the bronze medal. At the 2024 Olympics, the gymnast won a bronze medal after her coach Cecile Landi made an on-floor appeal. However, shortly thereafter, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) overturned her coach’s initial appeal, saying it was received 4 seconds after the one-minute cut-off date for submitting scoring queries.
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“CAS violated Chiles’ fundamental ‘right to be heard’ by refusing to consider video evidence showing that her inquiry was timely submitted – which is in direct contradiction to the findings in the CAS decision,” her lawyers said in a press release. in response to People magazine.
“We are not going to give up that easily and we will continue to look for video footage and other things,” her coach added on the time of the ruling.
Describing the choice as “unfair”, Chiles explained how the CAS ruling affected not only her but “everyone who supported (her) journey”. The situation left the Team USA star the victim of “unsolicited racial attacks on social media,” which, while hurtful, wasn’t the worst of it.
“The biggest thing that was taken away from me was the popularity of who I used to be. Not only my sport, but additionally who I’m. For me, all the things that happened was not in regards to the medal, but in regards to the color of my skin,” she said during her speech at this yr’s Forbes Power Women’s Summit. “I made history and I’ll at all times make history by doing something I rightly did. I followed the foundations, my coach followed the foundations.
Chiles says that with the support of her community and friends like Simone Biles, she has learned to just accept each step of her journey.
Entertainment
Kanye West’s wife Bianca Censori causes a scene and allegedly flashes customers of a Tokyo fast food restaurant
Paparazzi caught Kanye West and his wife Bianca Censori at places similar to a fashion show, an airport and a fast-food restaurant.
Some of West’s Japanese fans met the “Vultures” producer at a local McDonald’s in Tokyo, Japan, where he has been staying for the past few months working on his recent albums. Although the person didn’t explain intimately what he was talking about, his friend sent snap from the meeting on X’s profile.
“My friend just had a quick chat with Kanye West at McDonald’s in Tokyo,” user X wrote, sharing a photo of West and Censori taking a look at a kiosk to put an order.
The Australian architect may be seen wearing a tiny halter top and sheer iridescent tights, suggesting she’s either wearing a tiny thong or has gone commando mode. Many accused Censori of flashing other guests as people allegedly saw her private parts through her pantyhose.
Her hair is perfectly coiffed, slicked back with bangs at the underside, while her husband was seen fully wearing an olive bomber jacket and white or cream pants.
The couple orders food on the restaurant’s kiosk, apparently browsing through McDonald’s burger selection.
When the Daily Mail sent about Ye-Binc’s sighting, their readers immediately expressed their opinions.
A friend of mine just had a little chat with Kanye West at a Mc Donalds in Tokyo. pic.twitter.com/Sx7MjWZjoD
— Gyna G Gigi (@gguevaradesu) November 4, 2024
“Fast food workers have feelings just like the rest of us, and in ultra-conservative Japan they must have been completely offended,” one person commented, while one other called them “pathetic attention seekers.”
Many began joking around, coming up with their very own names for the couple, inspired by the restaurant’s menu.
“Mctrashy goes all out,” one person wrote, while others added: “McGreasy and McNasty.”
One person alluded to rumors that he was controlling and abusing her, writing: “Kanye ordered one piece off the menu… for himself. Nikkid the girl drank some water.
One person within the comments section of the Page Six report he said“Just disturbing. What are they trying to achieve?”
Yeezy, 47, and his much younger wife, 29, have been in Asia for weeks this 12 months, and the Chicago native says he likes it there because he doesn’t must worry about hiring security because most individuals respect him privacy – a luxury he cannot afford in America.
As one of probably the most successful artists of his generation 24 Grammy Awards (out of 75 nominations), only beaten by ten people, including the late Quincy Jones, who has 28, Kanye appears to be crowded wherever he goes, with people specializing in what he and his wife do and what they’ve I wear it almost each time.
While he seems to have limited his visits to special spots, it is not unusual to catch him diving locally – irrespective of what continent he’s on.
In August 2024, surveillance footage captured a couple ordering food at a KFC counter in Los Angeles.
Censori was spotted wearing a skimpy, threadbare bikini that hardly covered her chest, paired with silver tights, and while she wasn’t asked to depart, the web had a lot to say because Kanye was fully clothed.
Her outfit was very just like the McDonald’s set in Tokyo, probably the identical pants.
“Damn, she never hides, does she?” one person wrote. Another joked: “There’s no way his wife would walk into KFC looking like a prostitute.”
A 3rd comment asked, “What’s going on that she’s naked in public more often than porn stars are in porn movies?”
“Bro, a full outfit at @ZARA costs $100, come on,” one person chided him.
Censori has more freedom in dress when in America or Japan, in comparison with how she dresses in South Korea or China. In other Asian countries, where the federal government can set dress codes, she is sort of forced to cover up.
South Korea has strict laws prohibiting nudity in public places. Violators could face imprisonment or a wonderful of as much as 100,000 won, as public nudity is assessed as a sexual offense under Art. 3 of the Act on Punishment for Minor Crimes and marked as “vulgar exposure”.
The law defines obscene exposure as “excessive exposure of the genitals, buttocks, or other private parts in public places that embarrasses or offends others.” While the punishment could appear lenient, the interpretation of the word “indecent” is subjective and more severe penalties could also be imposed depending on the situation.
Since Ye appears to be comfortable in Asia, even recording an upcoming project and performing some major concert events for his Chinese and South Korean fans, he and his love have found a option to circumvent such strict dress codes.
They covered up when obligatory, but every probability Censori shows up in his signature look, they accomplish that.
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