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Usually ships in 1 business days | | | He reached an apogee of fame in the mid-1980s as the producer-arranger of Michael Jackson's blockbuster album Thriller and the charity single "We Are the World," but Quincy Jones has been a force in American music since he was a teenager. He swung hard enough to play with beboppers like Dizzy Gillespie; he studied composition with the legendary Nadia Boulanger; he scored dozens of films and TV shows; he arranged and/or produced albums for everyone from Frank Sinatra to Leslie Gore, and rappers like Melle Mel don't disdain the old man either. Looking back at age 68 in a good-natured autobiography supplemented with brief chapters by such friends as Ray Charles and ex-wife Peggy Lipton, Jones asserts, "I've been driven all my life by a spirit of adventure and a criminal level of optimism." Given his beginnings, growing up poor in Chicago and Seattle with a mentally ill mother lurking in the background, that's quite an achievement. Jones never stood still long enough to let sorrow catch him, and though his treatment of his personal life is standard Hollywood glib ("Though Nastassja [Kinski]'s and my relationship as a couple was not destined to last, she is a great friend"), his prose catches fire when it touches on music: Dinah Washington "could take the melody in her hand, hold it like an egg, crack it open, fry it, let it sizzle, reconstruct it, put the egg back in the box and back in the refrigerator, and you would've still understood every single syllable." His furious energy may have been fueled by personal demons, but his joyous sweep through a half century of American pop convinces you that Jones was right to keep moving: "Nothing is ever wrong if it's going someplace," he asserts. "Music is about ever-changing." --Wendy Smith | | | |
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| | Product Details | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 29 reviews |
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 One of the best music-related bios Aug 03, 2008
Great book. I really enjoyed it, and I would certainly recommend it to others. No way this book is NOT five stars plus.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
The Real Soul of Black Folks (or From street urchin to musical Genius in two years) Apr 24, 2008
This is a dangerously important and uplifting book. It is subversive in the sense that it reveals one of the darkest secrets about the "real souls of Black people:" That music provides the streetlights that illuminate "the royal road to hope and survival."
This book recalls in my own mind, during the same times that Q's musical life literally exploded (the two years from 14 to 16) -- the years when he literally went from "street urchin to musical genius" in one giant step, that it so happens that this was the same period that my stepfather and his returning army WW-II buddies were teasing each other about "combat boots" being their first real pair of shoes. Being essentially true made the joke all the more painful.
Yet, all of these Arkansas farm boys were in college on the GI Bill; and most importantly, they could all play musical instruments and could sing and dance and read music - especially the Harmonica, the piano, and the guitar. I naturally grew up thinking that doing these things was innate. It came as a great shock to me: when after getting a harmonic for Christmas, it did not play itself. I could not play a single song on the darn thing? I naturally thought that there was something terribly wrong with me: Maybe I was genetically defective? Although I did eventually learn to play the trumpet after a painful and lengthy apprenticeship, it still mystifies me, as to how it was that those in my father's and Q's generation picked up music as if it blew in through the window from off the wind?
That among other reasons is why this book is so terribly important: right after the war, music and sports provided the cushions for finding a semi-normal existence in a world gone mad with poverty and its racist rules and traditions. Q's life was different than most other inner city black kids only in the fact that his mother had to be committed to an insane asylum while he was young. This of course made the urgency for music in his life an even more important existential imperative: As he notes, his discovery of music became, not just his mistress (as it was for Duke Ellington), but also his mother.
But that is only part of the uplifting story told here, somehow, poverty, depravation, and humiliation during the era of "full" American Apartheid, could always be turned on its head: Somehow, there were always unguarded existential escape routes to both sanity and occasionally to success. Q followed his heart and found his talents, which as it turns out were considerable.
Living on the margins, on the outskirts of mainstream society, can either empower you or embitter you, or send you to the insane asylum as it did Q's mother. But either way, music and sports (and not the bible, the only thing that Q's mother took with her to the insane asylum) will help illuminate the way.
Five Stars
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Wonderful!! Apr 17, 2007
I was amazed at how good this book is. This book makes you want to know what's going to happen next. I never knew Quincy Jones had a hard childhood. I think I would rather starve than eat rats. I love the fact that Quincy doesn't just talk about music all the time but Quincy went deep into his personal life. I admire the fact that Quincy never gave up on his dream to become a trumpeter. I'm surprised at how successful Quincy is with all the problems he had. Reading this book inspires me to always follow my dreams, no matter what. I recommend this book BIG TIME to anyone interested in his life!
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Outstanding Mar 08, 2007
I loved it! I'm learning the piano and thought I could learn something from the best. I learned more. I'm a big music lover and love Quincy and his music. He's worked with the best of the legends, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Billy Holiday, Sarah Vaughn, Dina Washington, Ray Charles, Michael Jackson etc. etc. He's had an incredible life! And not without tragedy and set backs and overcame them all. His family is beautiful. How he forgave the sad and unfair things done to him. Tears and laughter, so moving, especially about his brother Lloyd. Quincy's my hero. I knew he was great, but he's more. I'm so grateful he shared his life with us. I learned so much! Let the Light heal the dark places, and listen to God's whispers is where I want to be. Thank you Quincy!
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 WoW Dec 04, 2006
I was extremely impressed. Scouting the library, I saw the book and I thought, Hey, this might be good. That night, I read 45 pages, with the school the following day: it was almost a priority. He really is a multi-talented fellow. Of his biggest accomplishment, (arguably, I mean besides his 29 Grammys) was Michael Jackson's Thriller album, but this guy can do anything. The stories are humble, the style down to earth and approachable, and above all, the stories were great. This isn't your ordinary 900 page presidential autobiography. I recommend it to anyone who appreciates autobiographies, truly something worth reading.
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