So Long To Q.

Three weeks ago the most important figure in music history passed away. I have had thoughts but then America decided to elect a fascist dictator and I got distracted. Now that I need a welcome distraction *gestures wildly all around me* I figured I would take a few moments just to mention some of my favorite moments from the man. It is not often that you can credibly call someone the most important figure in music history yet still feel like he is underrated, somehow this is where we have arrived with Quincy Jones. 

First off this man's legal name was Quincy Delight Jones Jr. He was destined to be the coolest mofo in music based off the dopeness of the name alone. 

As a 14 year old he began to take music serious after meeting another teenager by the name of Ray Charles. Seriously, imagine what you were doing at 14. Was it performing and finding your lifelong passion alongside another music virtuoso? Didn't think so.

He spent his 20s traveling Europe and playing in bands for the likes of Elvis Presley and Dizzy Gillespie, and by the time he was 30 he musical director for the damn Rat Pack. That's right Frank, Dean, Sammy and the boys all depended on Q to get their music right. 

The man wasn't just a one trick pony in the production game. He produced everyone from Lesley Gore to of course Michael Jackson. He could be described as the music industry's Forester Gump in that every time there is a moment in music history he probably was behind the scenes making it happen. 

He has won an 28 Grammy Awards, Primetime Emmy, Tony Award, and was also nominated for an Academy Award. He did also win the Academy Awards Humanitarian Award which technically would give my man the EGOT. Hell who else could win 28 Grammys and when you look at it you go "ehhhhh, feels like he got short changed."

No one gave a better quote than Quincy Jones in interviews. Seriously. Here are just a few of the hits:

• “[Marlon] Brando used to go cha-cha dancing with us. He could dance his ass off. He was the most charming motherf—er you ever met. He’d f— anything. Anything! He’d f— a mailbox. James Baldwin. Richard Pryor. Marvin Gaye… Come on, man. He did not give a f—! You like Brazilian music?”
• “Starr had taken three hours for a four-bar thing he was trying to fix on a song. He couldn’t get it. We said, ‘Mate, why don’t you get some lager and lime, some shepherd’s pie, and take an hour-and-a-half and relax a little bit.’” They called in jazz drummer Ronnie Verrell to record the part.“Ringo says, ‘That didn’t sound so bad.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, motherf***er because it ain’t you.’ Great guy, though.”
• On meeting the Pope: "We had to go and kiss his hand before we left. And when I kissed his hand, I looked down and saw those shoes and it just fell out of my mouth,” said Jones. "I said, 'Oh, my man's got some pimp shoes on.' And he heard me."
• “[Chicago mobster Sam] Giancana. The connection was there between Sinatra and the Mafia and Kennedy. Joe Kennedy — he was a bad man — he came to Frank to have him talk to Giancana about getting votes. We shouldn’t talk about this publicly.

Quincy Jones lived to be 91 years old and it didn't seem like enough time. Even though his accomplishments were almost insane to think that one man could do so much I'll end with what I as a father would assume is his greatest accomplishment. His daughter Rashida penned a beautiful tribute that ended with "Daddy, it is an honor to be your daughter. Your love lives forever."

As a father, if when my time has come to an end, if my boy feels it has been an honor to be of me, then it's been a life well lived.