Q85 – QUINCY JONES 85th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION at UJ18
UMBRIA JAZZ 2018 GRAND OPENING
Q85 – QUINCY JONES 85th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION
PERUGIA – FRIDAY JULY 13 – ARENA SANTA GIULIANA 9pm
Quincy Jones presents:
Dee Dee Bridgewater, Patti Austin, Take 6, Ivan Lins, Alfredo Rodriguez / Pedrito Martinez, Paolo Fresu
UJ Orchestra conducted by John Clayton feat. Nathan East & Harvey Mason
All arrangements by Quincy Jones
Coordinated by Nanni Zadda
Quincy Jones celebrates his 85th birthday in 2018, after more than seventy years spent triumphantly in show business. He was 14 when he began to go around in Seattle with a boy from Florida, two years older than him, who played the piano but who unfortunately had serious vision problems, Ray Charles. Since then the genius from Chicago has never stopped. Jazz trumpet player, multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, producer, music director, composer of soundtracks for cinema, theatre and television, proprietor or manager of record companies, actor. Suffice it to say that he produced the best-selling record in history, Michael Jackson’s Thriller. And that Fly Me to The Moon, which he arranged for Frank Sinatra with the Big Band of Count Basie, was the first song played on the moon by Buzz Aldrin during the NASA mission in 1969.
An incredible career that has made “Q” an icon of show business, not just music, and one of the most respected and influential African American intellectuals of all time. And it cannot be said that he is a misunderstood genius if one considers that among the accolades that have poured down on him, not only in America (France has awarded him the Legion d ‘Honneur), there are 79 nominations and 28 Grammy wins, including the most prestigious of all, the Grammy Legend Award, awarded only to fifteen artists. The Honorary and Master Degrees from the most prestigious universities, from Harvard to Princeton to Seattle, cannot be counted. A reputation and credibility that Quincy Jones has also spent in intense and passionate activity for civil rights and humanitarian causes, from support for Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela to the famous We are the World campaign, a hymn of humanity without barriers or discrimination of any kind.
Listing the artists for whom and with whom Jones has worked during his career, in his various assignments, is practically impossible. These include: Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Ray Charles, Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Clifford Brown & Helen Merrill, Dinah Washington, Lionel Hampton, Diana Ross, Ella Fitzgerald, Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett. Although he began as a jazzman, Quincy Jones has gradually expanded his musical horizons without any prejudice, exploring from his point of view pop, hip hop, soul, African and Brazilian music, classical music and creating “hybrids” that escape any limits or gender restrictions.
His music merits a separate chapter: as a composer, producer or arranger, for cinema (about thirty, including The Pawnbroker, In the Heat of the Night, Getaway, McKenna’s Gold, In Cold Blood), for television series like Ironside, for shows like that of Bill Cosby and for various theatrical and musical works.
To celebrate the 85th birthday of this music icon, Umbria Jazz has organized a show that is also a birthday party. On the stage of the Arena Santa Giuliana, Quincy Jones will present great artists who have worked with him in the past: the star of American song, Patti Austin, the virtuosi of jazz vocals, Take 6, Dee Dee Bridgewater, a great performer of Brazilian music, Ivan Lins and, from Cuba, Alfredo Rodriguez and Pedrito Martinez.
In addition, Paolo Fresu will be special guest.
Behind them, with the original arrangements of Quincy Jones, the Umbria Jazz Orchestra conducted by John Clayton, featuring Nathan East & Harvey Mason.
