“I am absolutely devastated at this tragic and unexpected news. For Michael to be taken away from us so suddenly at such a young age, I just don’t have the words. Divinity brought our souls together on The Wiz and allowed us to do what we were able to throughout the 80’s. To this day, the music we created together on “Off The Wall,” “Thriller” and “Bad” is played in every corner of the world and the reason for that is because he had it all…talent, grace, professionalism and dedication. He was the consummate entertainer and his contributions and legacy will be felt upon the world forever. I’ve lost my little brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him.”

Talented young artists have always had a special place in Quincy’s heart. Whether it was a teenage Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson or Whitney Houston, that performer’s emergence has been marked by an extraordinary journey.  Quincy has discovered a new artist who has the “potential to be one of the most prolific jazz pianists of the 21st century”, and his name is Alfredo Rodriguez.

Quincy first met Alfredo several years ago at the Montruex Jazz Festival where Alfredo was performing as a visiting musician from Cuba.  Quincy recalls how he “was truly mesmerized by his deft talent, and knew immediately that [he] wanted to work with him.”  But Alfredo’s status as a Cuban national made the prospects for a collaboration less than slim to none.  Quincy, being a lifelong optimist, kept in touch and exchanged e-mails. Through a tumultuous journey, Alfredo’s courage and the goodwill of many friends along the way, Alfredo miraculously arrived in Los Angeles last month to pursue his dreams. Quincy hopes to share Alfredo Rodriguez with the world. Today, Quincy introduced Alfredo at the Playboy Jazz Festival Press Conference for his upcoming performance at the Playboy Jazz Festival, which will be taking place on Sunday, June 14th at the Hollywood Bowl. To view Alfredo’s biography, upcoming shows, photos and videos, please visit Alfredo’s website, at www.alfredomusic.com. 

The Q Notes column was originally published in Billboard magazine in early 2008. We’re posting it now since the sentiments Quincy expresses go hand-and-hand with his dream of establishing a secretary of the arts post in the U.S.

It happens all the time. Parents come to me and say, “Would you mind talking to my kids and giving them some tips on how to make it in the music business?” For a singer or a trumpet player or any other musician, I would say, “Find the 10 people you admire the most as an artist-someone that hits your soul-and sing or play along with their records. Copy every note.”

That may sound strange, but you’re not going to end up sounding like the people you are copying. That’s how the whole evolution of jazz has worked. Louis Armstrong heard King Oliver, and tried to play and sing like he played, which was revolutionary. Then Roy Eldridge heard Armstrong and copied Armstrong and developed his own sound. Dizzy Gillespie copied Eldridge and developed his own sound, and it went on and on like that.

Even when we were kids, we’d copy every note Miles Davis, Fats Navarro and Bird put down. We’d know all the licks-all the things they played on 52nd Street. We didn’t miss a thing.

It’s tragic when American kids don’t know the history of their own music. I challenge you to go up to some 14- or 16-year-olds and find out how many of them know who Charlie Parker or Duke Ellington was. Jazz is to America what classical music is to Europe. All the big tent-pole figures in R&B — Marvin Gaye, Donny Hathaway, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and Earth, Wind & Fire — were all influenced by jazz.

Today, I harp on the kids and jump up and down and say, “If you know where you’re coming from, it’s easy to get where you’re going.” They act like blues and jazz don’t exist, but it’s not only their problem. Clear Channel doesn’t play it, radio doesn’t play it. It’s not part of the education system. We’ve got to change that or our own musical history will soon be lost forever.

This column was originally published in July 2008 in Billboard magazine.

I recently announced that I have no intention of canceling my plans to participate in the 2008 summer Olympic Games in Beijing as a culture and art consultant. I care too much about Darfur and China–especially in the wake of the devastating earthquake in Southwest China–to pull out. If I can stay in the games with others like us, I feel we can make a difference. I don’t pretend to be a politician. I’m just a musician who cares.

I recently met with Chinese Ambassador Liu Guijin to discuss the ongoing crisis in Darfur and China’s role in the region. It was the second time that I met with a Chinese official to discuss the situation in recent months. I was encouraged by his promise to personally discuss my concerns for the people of Darfur with his superiors in Beijing, as well as my deep sympathies for the victims of the devastating earthquake in China’s Sichaun Province. I remain hopeful that the government of China will take a lead role in helping to bring an end to the carnage taking place in Darfur as soon as possible.

I feel that the whole world has got to start taking responsibility for each other. With today’s lightning-fast global communication, we can no longer afford the luxury of thinking about only national kinds of issues. Everything that’s done anywhere is a world issue, and together there are lots of things we can do that nobody can do alone. Not one country is perfect enough to throw stones at anybody. Not one, especially not us.

These are huge issues that shouldn’t be taken lightly. They’re something that I’ve given considerable thought to and have researched thoroughly. As musicians and entertainment executives, you may find yourself in a situation in which you can affect change by either choosing to participate or boycott an event. Taking a stand is never a bad thing if it’s something you truly believe in. All I ask is that you take the time and do your homework. As the great Canadian physician William Osler once said, “We are here to add what we can to life, not to get what we can from it.”

Most of my kids are in the entertainment business. They found what they liked and did their own thing. I didn’t go running around getting into nepotism and opening doors up and all that stuff. I don’t think that’s healthy. Passion will drive you further than any kind of that assistance.

Growing up they were surrounded by everything from Earth, Wind & Fire to Miles Davis. Probably a lot of the time they weren’t even aware they were being exposed to it.

My son, Snoopy (Quincy Delight Jones III aka QD3), came up on Herbie Hancock and Stevie Wonder. He’s 39 years old but that’s where his basic roots are, so he’s has a different attitude about hip-hop. Today he runs QD3 Entertainment, a successful multimedia company.

My daughter, Rashida, was playing Bach’s “Two Part Inventions” when she was five. Today she’s an actress best known for her role on The Office and she had show on Fox called Unhitched.

Kidada has her own high-end brand for Disney that includes loungewear, jewelry, accessories and toys. Tina, is queen of the babies and is going to make some serious waves in the childcare industry. Rachel is an amazing veterinarian. Kenya, my youngest daughter, is a star student and an amazing horseback rider. Her older sister, Sonja, and brother, Ali, are like my own kids. She’s a romance concierge at Kiki De Montparnasse and an aspiring actress; he’s a musician and an up-and-coming producer.

I don’t know how it happened. I’m not going to pretend there was any plan. They were around and I was busy all the time, which is probably why I wasn’t as good a father as I should have been. I was just totally addicted to the music. And they came along. I took them everywhere. We went all over the world and they got it.

Now my grandson, Sunny Levine, has an album out. His father is Stewart Levine, who produced “Up Where We Belong” with  Joe Cocker, Simply Red, and “Grazing In the Grass” with Hugh Masekela 30 years ago, and his mom, my daughter Jolie, was the first one of the first black models on the cover of Mademoiselle magazine and ran the Take It Back foundation, so Sunny has genes all over the place. He worked with Hugh Masekela, too, and he produced an album by the Happy Mondays, who are from Manchester, the same city that New Order came from. 

In America, New Order recorded for my label, Qwest. Their “Blue Monday” was the biggest selling 12-inch single in England. They were called Joy Division before their singer Ian Curtis died. Funny thing is they came to me to sign. I didn’t even know who New Order was. Later on Bono came by my house and told me that Joy Division and New Order were big influences on U2. Now my grandson produced a group out of Manchester. It’s a small world and there’s so much magic involved.

This edition of Q Notes was originally published in Billboard magazine in early 2008 to coincide with Quincy serving as ambassador of 50th anniversary celebration of the Grammys and the Recording Academy.

BY QUINCY JONES

The Grammy Awards turn 50 this year, believe it or not—and I’m honored I was asked to be the ambassador of the 50th anniversary celebration.

I was there at the start. I remember being at a meeting where people like Nesuhi Ertegun, John Hammond and George Avakian were talking about trying to create a recording academy. Johnny Mercer and some people at Capitol Records were trying to do the same thing.

It’s exciting to see something that’s a dream—just an idea—come to fruition. The Recording Academy has worked because of the collective aspect of it. It’s a tribal thing. You can be judged by your peers, by a criteria set by people who do the same thing you do. Broadway had it; film people had it. So we had to have it, too.

I’ve been told my 27 Grammys are the most trophies won by any living artist. But the late great conductor Sir Georg Solti has the most Grammy wins of all time, with 31. I met him once in Switzerland at Stravinsky Hall on Lake Geneva, where they do the Montreux Jazz Festival. He sat in his chair, with his arms folded and an attitude and said, “You and that moonwalking friend of yours will never catch up to me.” It was cute. I said, “Let’s not worry about that tonight; let’s just have a good time.” He was proud—and he should have been, because he did some great work.

I couldn’t pick my favorite Grammy. They all mean something to me—from the most recent one in 2002, best spoken word album for the audiobook of my autobiography, all the way back to my first one in 1964, best instrumental arrangement for Count Basie’s “I Can’t Stop Loving You.” Barbra Streisand won her first Grammy that year, too.

This year, one of the songs nominated for best rap song is Kanye West’s “Good Life.” Kanye sampled “P.Y.T.,” a song James Ingram and I wrote for Michael Jackson more than 25 years ago.

Through the years, though I’ve won 27 Grammys, I’ve also lost 52. I know what it feels like on both sides, so I appreciate it when it works out. It’s like Count Basie used to say, “Young blood, there will always be hills and valleys. And the valleys help validate who you are when it gets rough out there.”

By QUINCY JONES

Everyone’s talking about 360 deals. Earlier this year, my friends Bono and U2 signed one with Live Nation, followed by Jay-Z and others. With the music industry in dire straits, creative deal-making is a must. It makes sense for artists and their handlers to focus on touring and merchandise revenues and use their recorded music as a promotional piece if necessary. These deals are interesting, but they definitely won’t work for everyone. A symphony orchestra, a hip-hop producer, and a rocker are three very different animals. Some artists can craft a successful tour—but others rely on recorded music to make a living—and those are the artists that are hoping we can find a solution to the record industry’s problems.

Some artists are taking a do-it-yourself approach, like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails offering name-your-price and/or free downloads and limited-edition albums through their own websites before issuing traditional physical releases. I applaud these innovations and the art of the deals involved in making all these ideas realities.

However, there is one thing that troubles me about the current state of the music business. It seems that the art of these deals is getting far greater attention than the artistry they’re built upon. Sure we need creative, artistic solutions to survive in the current climate, but we can’t let our desire for financial gain take precedent over the quest for artistic excellence. Don’t get me wrong. Almost every artist wants to be financially rewarded for their efforts and God knows I have been incredibly blessed in that area over my career, but it wasn’t always that way. When I was a young buck coming up, my friends like Ray Charles and I didn’t make music for money. Sure we got paid a bit, but we made music because we had to. It was in our blood. The real financial rewards came after we achieved artistic excellence. I think the same holds true for all the aforementioned artists. They create art because it’s in their blood. They have to do it.

I don’t think there is going to be a single answer to the record industry’s problems—but an array of options that will be tailored to the specific artist. For the new artists who are out there reading the headlines about 360 deals and free downloads, don’t let the art of these deals distract you from your own artistry. Master your craft first. Create the best art you possibly can and then, and only then, work on the art of the deal that will get it to the public so you can support yourself doing what you love to do. And one thing you must remember, you have to approach your creativity with humility and treat your success with grace. At the end of the day, we’re merely vehicles for a higher power. It’s about cause and manifestation. When making music you have to leave room for God to walk through the door.

By QUINCY JONES

Michael Jackson’s Thriller just celebrated its 25th anniversary. Isn’t that a trip?

I’ve made three complete trips around the world in the last 18 months and at every club I visited, at peak hour, when they finish all the other things, they go and play Thriller. I’m happy about it, but it startles me. Twenty five years—that’s a long time for a record to still be a part of the everyday swingers’ set.

Before we started on Thriller, I was working on Donna Summer’s second Geffen album. I thought it would take four months, but it went seven. In the middle of it, we took a break, and Jackson and I went to Tucson, Ariz., to Paul McCartney’s house to do “The Girl Is Mine” because that was the only time he was in town. By the time I finished Summer’s record, we only had eight weeks to do Thriller. Sometimes that’s better. You don’t have time to sit there and get paralysis from analysis. You just go with your best instincts.

So we had three studios going at once and something going on every day and night. In the back room they were singing through cardboard pipes on “Billie Jean,” and we had Eddie Van Halen in the other room, which was amazing.

I was begging Jackson for a black rock’n'roll song and he came up with “Beat It,” which was crying out for Van Halen. Vincent Price was perfect casting for the rap on “Thriller.” He’s the personification of horror, and he did it in two takes because he’s a serious pro.

If you listen to God’s whispers, the whispers tell you what to do. Of course, none of it would have been possible without my A-Team: Rod Temperton, Bruce Swedien, Jerry Hey, Greg Phillinganes and everyone else that contributed. There’s nothing better than creative collaboration. It was exciting because we were very adventuresome then and unafraid. I don’t think anything like Thriller will ever happen again. Being involved in a record like that is a major, major gift from God.

By QUINCY JONES

One of the most moving and rewarding projects of my career was working on Roots, the landmark 1977 miniseries based on my friend Alex Haley’s novel. Roots touched me deeply because it’s the story of my ancestors. In fact, one night while I was working on the score, my wife at the time, Peggy Lipton, caught me weeping at my Rhodes piano. It was a heavy project that also touched upon the roots of our music.

On the East Coast, when the slave ships hit Virginia, the slave owners took the drums away from the slaves in 1692 to break up the culture and the families so they could keep control. Thank God that New Orleans and Louisiana — with the French and the Spanish immigrants — respected the culture and they encouraged it, that’s why we ended up with all the great music coming from there, music the world had never heard before. When the slave owners took the drums away, they took away all the complex polyrhythms that were part of African music. The slaves started to do stomping, clapping and patting rhythms on their legs to try and keep up with the cultural memory. When the slaves were freed in 1865 after the Emancipation Proclamation; they couldn’t quite get their hands on the 6/8 rhythm, so they came up with rhythms that would form the basis of blues (such as shuffle rhythms) and jazz with washtubs with holes in the top for broomsticks that made a bass and sock cymbals. They invented that music. It’s astounding irony. You take 22 million people from another country and try to break their culture down and they come up with random music that the whole world is addicted to.

In Europe, music is about virtuosity and concerts. There’s a whole different attitude about music. In Africa, it’s life-force music. It’s circumcision rights, elephant hunts, virginity rights, work songs; it provided a basis for life that made life easier. It imitated nature. All those rhythms come from monkeys, birds and other animals in the jungle.

Americans still don’t understand polyrhythms outside of a few jazz drummers. You can have six different beats going simultaneously all with a different beat. You can have six rooms and tell each one that the downbeat is here and they’re all playing the same music, but with different beats. That’s what powerful polyrhythms are about. Polyrhythms and call-and-response, which have the biggest African influences, are still heard in our music today. We should never forget where they came from.

Here are a few tracks from Quincy’s acclaimed 1977 album, Roots.

By QUINCY JONES

Ever since Shawn Fanning launched the original Napster—and even more so now that legitimate downloading has taken off via iTunes—I’ve been hearing lots of talk about the death of the album. It’s getting louder and louder, and it has our industry running scared. As you all know, single tracks—whether they’re purchased legitimately or downloaded illegally—are cutting into the sales of albums, which are far more profitable.

The big question is, What, as an industry, should we do about this? Do we deny consumers the freedom of choice of buying single tracks, as Jay-Z did with his “American Gangster” album? That’s one way of preserving the art form known as the album, but I think there’s an even better solution.

Artists, producers, songwriters and A&R folks: Rise up to the challenge and make your album so good that fans will want to buy the whole thing. I realize every album can’t have six or seven top 10 singles, like Michael Jackson and I were blessed with on “Thriller” and “Bad,” but you’ve got to try. If it’s good enough, the fans will buy it. Maybe they’ll want to whet their appetite by only buying a track or two at first, but if you keep coming out with good tracks and pique their interest, they’ll be back.

There’s actually an opportunity here to sell more than just the album. Release a digital track early. That’s an easy sell, but make sure the rest of the album delivers that same kind of quality and excitement, and they’ll be back to buy additional tracks and/or hopefully the entire album as you conceived it. And don’t forget special packaging for the physical product. If you and your team deliver quality goods, the fans will want to buy it.

Can you imagine a world in which people only bought a single download of Miles Davis’ “So What” instead of the greatest jazz album of all time, “Kind of Blue”? Or “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)” instead of Marvin Gaye’s complete masterpiece “What’s Going On?” Or even a single track from Herbie Hancock’s Grammy Award-winning “River: The Joni Letters” instead of the whole collection?

We need to stop complaining about single-song downloads and instead focus on making better music that’ll make fans want more than just one song.