Michael's work with Quincy Jones

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Quncy Jones Talked His Relationship With Michael Jackson
And The Origins Of ‘Thriller’ In A New Interview

http://uproxx.com/music/2015/04/qui...d-the-origins-of-thriller-in-a-new-interview/
BY AARON PRUNER04.12.15


gettyimages_104369333-e1424894252547.jpg
GETTY IMAGE


79-time Grammy nominee Quincy Jones, recently took part in an ongoing interview series called
Hollywood Masters. The legendary producer sat down and discussed everything from the birth
of hip hop to producing The Color Purple and The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air.

One of the highlights was the time Jones spent discussing his relationship with Michael Jackson and
according to THR, he had a special nickname for the singer:
Speaking to students at
Loyola Marymount University’s School of Film & TV on April 8, Jones recalled meeting Jackson as a
12-year-old and then getting to know him on the 1978 movie The Wiz. Later, “I used to call Michael ‘Smelly,’
because he wouldn’t say ‘funky.’ He’d say ‘smelly jelly.’ They’d say,
‘Who’s in the studio?’ I said,
‘Smelly, Worms and Mouse.’ ”

Michael Jackson wouldn’t say the word “funky”? Imagine if Vincent Price had that problem.
“The smell of 40,000 years” just wouldn’t have had the same effect.

Jones also talked about the moment he heard about Jackson’s death and the effect it had on him:
“I freaked out,” he said. “You know, I couldn’t believe it. No, it was heavy. Really heavy. Because,
boy, the relationship with a producer and an artist is really special. And there’s no room for BS at all.
It’s got to be pure. It’s got to be love and respect and amazing mutual respect for each other because
that’s what makes a good record. When they trust each other, and you tell them to jump without a net,
boy, you better know what you’re talking about.”



You can check out Jones’ interview below and also hear his thoughts on the origins of hip-hop over here.

[video=youtube;OBtzrd5_EFc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBtzrd5_EFc[/video]

 
IMWhizzle;4085752 said:
Well, he has lost weight.

This made me laugh especially because I have nothing good to say about the interview :hysterical:
 
Quincy has said some eye brow raising things about Michael these last few years, but I'll give credit where credit's due, and say that he was an amazing producer, and I appreciate his contributions to Off The Wall, Thriller and BAD.
 
He changes the topic a lot of the time, I'm sure many of you also noticed! Some nice words, pretty sure those 800 song's were just lyrics & writers ideas Their has to be at least 30-45 rough/fairly completed demos though.
 
He also said MJ had no idea what they were making doing Thriller.


You know MJ was clueless, it was Quincy's vision and insight behind everything
 
In his interview with Bruno Mars he also forgot to mention Michael was part of the work process and if I didn't know better I would have thought it was QJ's album with Bruce Swedien.
 
InvincibleTal;4085818 said:
In his interview with Bruno Mars he also forgot to mention Michael was part of the work process and if I didn't know better I would have thought it was QJ's album with Bruce Swedien.
True. I think he's cracked up a bit bc of all the great work he did in the past with artists of the highest caliber and all anyone wants to talk about is Michael. This interviewer brought him back to Michael each and every time.
He never mentioned Michael in his induction to the RRHOF but every single tribute did-including Usher recreating RWY down to the bow tie and green strobe light.
 
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It's sad because back in the day he had no problem talking about the glorious achievements in music that he and Michael inspired each other to do.

I think maybe no matter how much he praised Michael then, people always assumed Quincy was the power behind the throne. Or the Pygmalion to Michael's Galatea.

It's sad to me because Quincy really is an incredible talent and visionary, and I hate to see him angry and bitter.
 
I truly don't understand Q's bitterness towards Michael. He was asked about him over the years as well, even when he was his own producer since the Dangerous album and Michael didn't waste time to praise him and giving credit for what Q did. It seems in the last years he doesn't like Michael surpassed every work he did before working with MJ and after the Bad album.
 
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I also don't understand it. He will forever be connected to Michael's musical legacy.
 
I think he didn't like the fact Michael moved on to work with other producers and was able to create and succeed without him. I also think it has something to do with the fact Michael didn't spend as much time with him.
 
Soundmind;4085816 said:
He also said MJ had no idea what they were making doing Thriller.


You know MJ was clueless, it was Quincy's vision and insight behind everything

This is why I said it will be the best, when they include old interviews form him in the Spiike Lee Off The Wall-Docu, like they did in Bad 25.
New interviews will only be a disappointment and sure not good for Michael. I don`t understand why some fans expect from him a good contribution to the docu. Every interview in the last years he gave shows the contrary.


http://s574011238.online.de/backupboard
 
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Annita;4085857 said:
This is why I said it will be the best, when they include old interviews form him in the Spiike Lee Off The Wall-Docu, like they did in Bad 25.
New interviews will only be a disappointment and sure not good for Michael. I don`t understand why some fans expect from him a good contribution to the docu. Every interview in the last years he gave shows the contrary.
If Spike Lee does a good job as an interviewer I think there is a lot of useful information that (maybe only) Quincy can provide. The questions he is given in these types of interviews are often very general. If you ask him detailed questions that have more to do with facts rather than his general feelings, I think he can still provide a lot of insights and there is less room for sour remarks. If he does make comments like that (like the "Michael had no idea what we were doing" thing here), they do not have to make the cut. And maybe he would be in a less sour mood when he specifically agrees to do an interview about Michael. Like others have said here, he particularly seems peeved because the interview is supposed to be about him but he is only asked about Michael.
 
Q still praised Michael in the 90's, even early 2000's. He started to make nasty remarks about Michael's children and his skin color in 2005. I guess he got bitter because MJ was able to succeed without Q in these recent years.
 
That was unfortunate. It's one thing to say something about MJ but totally different to make remarks about his kids. You worked with the greatest entertainer of all time, you are bound to be asked about him but don't have to come across as bitter about him.
 
Snow White luvs Peter Pan;4086252 said:
Q still praised Michael in the 90's, even early 2000's. He started to make nasty remarks about Michael's children and his skin color in 2005. I guess he got bitter because MJ was able to succeed without Q in these recent years.
This really shocked me, Snow-that it went back to 2005-do you remember where? In an interview or in print? I googled it, but all I could find in 2005 was some stupid story about something Q apparently said to Michael prior to the court case-but that was from Harvey Levin back when he was doing some "Celebrity Crime" show-and it was third hand.

I'm surprised because didn't Michael still talk to him before "This is It" and they were supposed to get together with the kids, etc. I can see Michael being forgiving with remarks toward him, but not the kids.

I was watching TV 24/7 the first week after Michael died, because I couldn't stop watching-and so I was there when Quincy gave that Harry Smith interview talking about "not wanting to be black" and "fake blister on lungs" and the remarks about the kids. My jaw dropped-all of his interviews up to that point and even half of that one had been glowing-and then that. I was horrified and enraged-and then I really thought I had just watched someone totally crack up on TV. Just went nuts over the whole thing in front of our eyes. It's the only way I can explain what I was seeing and hearing.

Because he couldn't have been serious-and the remarks about the kids-has he seen his own kids. But if you say it also happened in 2005, I can't reconcile it.

I really feel that he had some kind of mental breakdown that day. Since that time, even though he rarely mentions Michael, he HAS made some glowing speeches about Michael in Dubai and at the Immortal hand/footprint ceremony in front of the very kids he referred to.

[video=youtube;tnOgIdiQMfA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnOgIdiQMfA[/video]


Ironic though-that this was when Immortal was being rolled out, since Quincy later decided to sue the Estate for mixing the songs used in it without paying him royalties.
 
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Quincy Jones never ever tried to take credit for Michael's success, Quincy never had to go that route, he was already the most accomplished musical producer in the recording industry before he and Michael started collaborating together....
 
8701girl;4086072 said:
The I think he got mad Mj left him out for dangerous album

As far as i remember it was more like, Michael wanted to take over more and more during BAD.
Also Michael wanted to try new music styles that Quincy would not do. (Hiphop, New Jack Swing)
I think it was Quincy who recommended to him to take over the ship for the next album and
also recommended Teddy Riley to him.

If there is any bitterness in Quincy it might be two things.
A bitterness towards the public/press that his own legacy keeps being reduced
to the MJ albums (similar to Michaels problem, always being reduced to Thriller).
And possibly a more personal bitterness towards Michael.
Quincy always decribed their relationship as very close, and noone likes to see a close friend
going a route that you think is not good for him. It's known that Quincy had big issues seeing
Michael change his appearance so drasticly. And he maybe never got over that.

All that in the mix with Quincy's age plus how things ultimately developed for Michael over the years...
and you get the Quincy of today.
 
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Bringing Brighter Days;4086346 said:
Quincy Jones never ever tried to take credit for Michael's success, Quincy never had to go that route, he was already the most accomplished musical producer in the recording industry before he and Michael started collaborating together....

While was an an accomplished musician before MJ (whether "most accomplished musical producer in the recording industry" - that is very debatable) I don't agree with these suggestions that somehow MJ is not important to him in terms of his (Quincy's) career. For why do you think Quincy collects the most royalties until this day? I doubt it is his work with Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, The Brothers Johnson or Tevin Campbell.

Without Michael Quincy still would have been an accomplished musician in certain circles, I guess, but nowhere near the houshold name that he became thanks to Michael. And whether he tried to take credit from Michael. Well, sometimes he does say things from which the uninformed listener can easily conclude that OTW, Thriller and Bad creatively were all Quincy Jones albums with MJ just singing the songs he gave him (which we here know is not true as Michael wrote most of his songs, not Quincy and Quincy only ever co-wrote one song - PYT - on any MJ album). And go to other music boards and you will often run into this misconception with people thinking MJ's albums were basically Quincy Jones albums with Michael just singing on them - a myth that IMO Quincy too feeds into with some of his comments.

Electro;4086348 said:
Also Michael wanted to try new music styles that Quincy would not do. (Hiphop, New Jack Swing)

That's funny because then Quincy did this.

[video=youtube;DwgprId0mQk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwgprId0mQk[/video]


So actually both Michael and Quincy did new jack swing and hip hop after they parted ways and IMO Michael did it better. Quincy could not really move away from that generic NJS/hip-hop sound of the era while Michael took it to another level on Dangerous IMO. Which shows why it was indeed the right time for him to move away from Quincy Jones and try other things.
 
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Bringing Brighter Days;4086346 said:
Quincy Jones never ever tried to take credit for Michael's success, Quincy never had to go that route, he was already the most accomplished musical producer in the recording industry before he and Michael started collaborating together....

It's true Quincy Jones had an impressive career prior to his work with Michael and he "never had to go that route", but he did take that route. He didn't say he's the reason for Michael's success but like Respect stated above there are many interviews he did that make it look like Bad, Thriller and OTW are Quincy's album and Michael Jackson just happened to be there like a puppet singer when we know it isn't true.
 
barbee0715;4086339 said:
I really feel that he had some kind of mental breakdown that day. Since that time, even though he rarely mentions Michael, he HAS made some glowing speeches about Michael in Dubai and at the Immortal hand/footprint ceremony in front of the very kids he referred to.

I don't think he had a breakdown. I think he'd been privately saying those things for years, vocalizing them publicly at times, but mostly, he'd said them within his inner circle. I always thought some of Oprah's about face on MJ was related to her good buddy Quincy making disparaging remarks about him behind closed doors. Pure speculation on my part about OW, but Quincy had obviously been harboring resentment for MJ. That he chose the time of his death to let the world know about it was crazy. He got a lot of heat from not just MJ's fans but the media. I was listening to a radio station that ripped him apart for what he said immediately after MJ's death.

Now, he's back to making some glowing remarks about MJ. I say "some" because he still has a tendency to minimize MJ at times.

I tried to look at the video, but I just couldn't because I will never see him as I once did. Have lost a lot of respect for him as a man, although I still respect his talent and accomplishments, prior to working with MJ and with working with him.
 
respect77;4086369 said:
While was an an accomplished musician before MJ (whether "most accomplished musical producer in the recording industry" - that is very debatable) I don't agree with these suggestions that somehow MJ is not important to him in terms of his (Quincy's) career. For why do you think Quincy collects the most royalties until this day? I doubt it is his work with Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, The Brothers Johnson or Tevin Campbell.

Without Michael Quincy still would have been an accomplished musician in certain circles, I guess, but nowhere near the houshold name that he became thanks to Michael. And whether he tried to take credit from Michael. Well, sometimes he does say things from which the uninformed listener can easily conclude that OTW, Thriller and Bad creatively were all Quincy Jones albums with MJ just singing the songs he gave him (which we here know is not true as Michael wrote most of his songs, not Quincy and Quincy only ever co-wrote one song - PYT - on any MJ album). And go to other music boards and you will often run into this misconception with people thinking MJ's albums were basically Quincy Jones albums with Michael just singing on them - a myth that IMO Quincy too feeds into with some of his comments.



That's funny because then Quincy did this.

[video=youtube;DwgprId0mQk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwgprId0mQk[/video]


So actually both Michael and Quincy did new jack swing and hip hop after they parted ways and IMO Michael did it better. Quincy could not really move away from that generic NJS/hip-hop sound of the era while Michael took it to another level on Dangerous IMO. Which shows why it was indeed the right time for him to move away from Quincy Jones and try other things.


there is no debate on that......here is a list of Quincy Jones accomplishments years before he even met Michael Jackson

1.) Quincy had already learned how to play the trumpet at the age of 11

2.) had written his first musical composition at the age of 14

3.) as a teenager, joined Lionel Hampton's r&b/blues band as a trumpeteer

4.) at 23, he became musical director of Count Basie's world travelling band

5.) received first award of merit as an arranger in 1956

6.) studied composition and theory of Nadia Boulanger in france, one of 20th centuries greatest music tutors

7.) First musical score he mastered was Igor Stravinsky's "Firebird Suite", the same Stravinsky MIchael Jackson talked about allot and I'm sure he learned about from Quincy Jones

8.) in the early 1960s, Quincy became the first black vice president of a major music label at Mercury Records

9.) Scored for both Frank Sinatra and Count Basie's Ochestra

10.) won his first Grammy award in the 60s for arranging one of Count Basie's compositions with BAsie being remembered as one of the best jazz artists of all time

11.) entering the 1970s, Quincy was the most sought after musical producer/arranger in the recording industry

12.) completed musical scores for countless movies and tv shows.....the music you hear in those Austin Powers movies "Soul Bosa Nova".....Quincy Jones scored that

13.) First black person to serve as musical arranger for the Grammy Awards in 1973

14.) Co-produced a musical special for one of the music's great luminaries in Duke Ellington in the early 70s

15.) Musical scored for the mini series "Roots" in 1977

16.) would use his music to champion social activism throughout the globe

allll that happened before he started working with Michael Jackson and I left allot of stuff out

and after they stopped working, Quincy's career did not end their

even in the 80s, he produced two grammy award winning albums with "The Dude" in 1981 and "Back on the Block" in 1989 for which he won a total of 8 Grammys for, and scored for the movie "The Color Purple" and for the tv series "In The Heat of the Night"

in the 90s, he co-produced several hit tv shows including "The fresh prince of bel-air"

was the musical arranger for President Clinton's presidential inauguration

Founded "Vibe" magazine in the mid 90s

began addressing world debt relief for several struggling nations who owed high interest money to the international monetary relief fund

throughout his storied career, he scored 33 major films and dozens of tv shows, arranged over 500 recordings, nominated for over 75 grammys, winning 27 total, several oscar nominations, won an emmy award, received the highest jazz honor from the national endowment of the arts

his career has spanned over 6 decades and he knows about the changing scope of music and the origin of musical expressions better than anyone I've ever seen......

his resume clearly indicates he has earned the right to be recognized as the greatest musical producer of all time and he would have earned that distinction if he and Michael Jackson never worked together....yes, their collaboration together was Quincy's most celebrated moments, but he was already the best during the time black music and its representatives were being shunned by the restrictions placed w/in the entertainment and music field.....

he never needed to or tried to take credit for the success he and MJ shared together....that's a myth that's been put out their over recent times

and the reason is Quincy is speaking out more about his contribution to Off The Wall, Thriller, and Bad is because for the past 5 years, the insinuation has been presented publically that he did not really contribute....

this was not an issue when their collaboration was actually taking place, there was never any debates about who was doing what......that's what's so unfortunate about where things stand now and how history is being changed to fit narratives.....
 
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