Quincy Jones

Quincy Jones

Photo: Rebecca Sapp/Stringer via Getty Images

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Mogul Moment: How Quincy Jones Became An Architect Of Black Music

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In his work, which spans seven decades and counting in the business, Quincy Jones has proved time and time again that Black music is America's music
Morgan Enos
GRAMMYs
Mar 4, 2021 - 3:51 pm

Ahead of Quincy Jones' appearance at the Inaugural Black Music Collective GRAMMY Week Celebration during GRAMMY Week 2021, GRAMMY.com explores how the producer, composer and arranger built a launchpad for some of the most revolutionary voices in Black American music.

Quincy Jones has the stories of a townful of people put together. He's eaten rats to survive, attended his own funeral and claims to know who actually shot JFK. He can show you a scar on his temple where an icepick nailed him—and another on his hand thanks to a switchblade. In between, he's helped Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Charles, George Benson, Michael Jackson, Donna Summer and scores of others make some of the most beloved music of the 20th century.

All those artists happen to be Black, and Jones understands profoundly their work's vitality to the American fabric. Between working on classic films like 1966's Walk, Don't Run, 1967's In The Heat of the Night and 1969's The Italian Job; producing bubblegum hits like Lesley Gore's "It's My Party"; and co-producing the celebrity smorgasbord "We Are The World," Jones has spearheaded quintessential Black American albums like Ella Fitzgerald’s and Count Basie’s Ella and Basie, Michael Jackson’s Thriller and George Benson’s Give Me the Night.

In his work, which spans seven decades and counting in the business, Jones has proved time and time again that Black music is America's music. For his trouble, he's collected 28 GRAMMY Awards, 80 nominations and a GRAMMY Legend Award. Ahead of his appearance next at the Inaugural Black Music Collective Event, a virtual event focused on amplifying Black voices, during GRAMMY Week 2021, it's worth noting how Jones helped architect Black music throughout his career.

"I believe that a hundred years from now when people look back at the 20th century, they will look at Miles, Bird, Clifford Brown, Ella and Dizzy, among [other] elders as our Mozarts, our Chopins, our Bachs and Beethovens," Jones told NPR's “Fresh Air” in 2001. (He worked or hobnobbed with all five of those Black geniuses.) "I only hope that one day, America will recognize what the rest of the world already has known, that our indigenous music—gospel, blues, jazz and R&B—is the heart and soul of all popular music; and that we cannot afford to let this legacy slip into obscurity, I'm telling you."

That elevation of Black expression is the headline of Jones' life and work. Here's how it became that way.

For Quincy Jones, Music Changed Everything

On March 14, 1933, Jones was born on the wrong side of town during the worst economic downturn in history. "I wasn't born in Bel Air, man. I'm from the South Side of Chicago," he told Dr. Dre in the 2018 Netflix documentary Quincy, citing an area with a history of violence and poverty. "In the '30s, man, during the Depression, damn, you kidding? We lost my mother when I was seven, and my brother and I, we were like street rats." At first, he didn’t have musical dreams, but those of a life of crime: "I wanted to be a gangster 'til I was 11. You want to be what you see, and that's all we ever saw."

With his mother was in and out of mental institutions, Jones and his brother Lloyd stayed at his grandmother's—a former slave’s—house without electricity or running water. According to his 2001 autobiography Q, they were so impoverished that she fed the boys "mustard greens, okra, possum, chickens and rats, and me and Lloyd ate them all."

Jones’ mother, who often sang religious songs, introduced a young Jones to music. "When I was five or six, back in Chicago, there was this lady named Lucy Jackson who used to play stride piano in the apartment next door, and I listened to her all the time right through the walls," Jones told PBS in 2005. Plus, a next-door neighbor, Lucy Jackson, played stride piano next door; Jones kept an ear to the wall.

When Jones was 10, the family moved to Bremerton, Washington. In his early teens, they relocated to Seattle, where Jones caught word of a skinny, Black 16-year-old kid in town with frightening musical talent. "[He] played his ass off. He played piano and sang like Nat 'King' Cole and Charles Brown," Jones remembered in Q. "He said his name was Ray Charles, and it was love at first instinct for both of us."

Despite Charles' blindness, he was utterly self-reliant, renting an apartment, going steady with a girlfriend and shopping, cooking and laundering for himself. His independence and creativity were galvanizing to Jones, illuminating a path he would follow for the rest of his life.

"Ray was a role model at a time when I had few. He understood the world in ways I didn't," Jones wrote in Q. "He'd say, 'Every music has its own soul, Quincy. It doesn't matter what style it is, be true to it.' He refused to put limits on himself."

Soon after, Jones enrolled at Garfield High School, where he honed his craft as a trumpeter and arranger. He earned a scholarship at Seattle University, transferred to Berklee College of Music in Boston, traveled with the future GRAMMY Special Merit Award Honoree Lionel Hampton's band at age 20. From there, he was off to the races.

Of course, Charles went on to live up to his maxim of artistic limitlessness, cross-pollinating R&B, soul, blues, gospel, jazz, and even country music, on 1962's Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. And Jones remained an integral part of his story, writing and arranging "The Ray" for 1957's The Great Ray Charles. Heavy, bluesy and swinging, the tune telegraphs Jones' admiration for The Genius.

Jones Alters Rock ‘N’ Roll

Fast-forward five years: Jones was in the midst of a fruitful stint as a writer and arranger for the Count Basie Orchestra, on albums like 1959's Basie One More Time and 1960's String Along With Basie. 

Meanwhile, over in rock 'n' roll, an extinction event had hit. Buddy Holly was dead, Chuck Berry was in prison, Jerry Lee Lewis was in the hot seat for a marriage scandal, and a post-service Elvis Presley was flailing from one lightweight flick to the next. Little Richard, for his part, had become born again and forsaken rock 'n' roll, pivoting to Jesus with 1960's austere Pray Along With Little Richard.

Understanding that his earlier, cat-in-heat hits like "Tutti Frutti" and "Long Tall Sally" had a lot in common with gospel music, Jones lit a fire under Richard by way of 1962's The King of the Gospel Singers, a project he joined via Richard’s old producer Bumps Blackwell. 

Over Jones’ revved-up arrangements, Richard sounded less self-righteous and more tapped into the wild, frenzied heart of holy devotion.

Deeper Into Jazz…

Ever since he was a kid, Jones had been a fan of bebop, a harmonically advanced, blisteringly fast form of small-group jazz. The virtuosic trumpeter, composer and educator Dizzy Gillespie was one of the style's principal architects.

Come 1963, and Jones would produce his hero's excellent 1963 album New Wave!. The album braids American mainstays (W.C. Handy's "Careless Love") with bossa nova standards (Antônio Carlos Jobim's "One Note Samba"). As a whole, it provides as effective a gateway as any into Gillespie's innovations in the Afro-Cuban sphere.

...And Soul & Pop

For the rest of the decade, Jones arranged for Black vocal dynamos Shirley Horn, Dinah Washington and Sarah Vaughan. 

In 1973, Jones produced Aretha Franklin's Hey Now Hey (The Other Side of the Sky), which is neither as muscular as her peak work nor as luxurious as '80s albums like Jump To It. Regardless, that in-betweenness—and the strength of its material—makes Hey Now Hey an intriguing look at the Queen of Soul in a state of transition.

At the time, two members of Jones' band were George "Lightnin' Licks" and Louis E. "Thunder Thumbs" Johnson, known as The Brothers Johnson. Jones went on to produce four successful albums for the brothers. Three singles in particular—1976's "I'll Be Good to You," 1977's Shuggie Otis cover "Strawberry Letter 23" and 1980's "Stomp!"—all topped the Hot R&B Charts and remained classic examples of Jones’ contributions to Black music.

Enter Michael Jackson

Around this time, Jones was highly active in film. While working as a music supervisor and producer on 1978's The Wiz, a film adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name, he was impressed by the precocious co-star Michael Jackson, who had already made waves in The Jackson 5.

After filming wrapped, Jackson told his label, Epic Records, and managers, Freddie DeMann and Ron Weisner, that he wanted Jones to produce for him.

"[T]his was 1977 and disco reigned supreme," Jones wrote in Q. "The word was, 'Quincy Jones is too jazzy and has only produced dance hits with The Brothers Johnson.' When Jackson approached Jones about this, he laid the young singer's anxieties to rest: "If it's meant for us to work together, God will make it happen. Don't worry about it." (In the meantime, Jones produced 1979's funk-soul gem Masterjam by Rufus and Chaka Khan.)

The music the pair made together may prove the existence of a higher power: Jones produced 1979's Off The Wall, 1982's Thriller and 1987's Bad.

"[W]orking with Quincy was such a wonderful thing," Jackson told Ebony in 2007, 25 years after Thriller’s release. "He lets you experiment, do your thing, and he's genius enough to stay out of the way of the music, and if there's an element to be added, he'll add it."

By now, all three albums have been codified into pop culture. "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" could compel a corpse to cut a rug, everyone who's watched TV has seen the "Thriller" video, and the exuberant "The Way You Make Me Feel" can still lift one out of a bedridden depression. Together, the three albums won more than a dozen GRAMMYs and were nominated for a pile of others.

Give Him The Night

While Jackson ascended in the pop world, the jazz guitar great George Benson began singing more and hewing more commercial, with Tommy LiPuma-helmed albums like 1976's Breezin', 1977's In Flight and 1979's Livin' Inside Your Love. In 1980, Jones partnered with Warner Bros. to form Qwest, a subsidiary label that gave him extraordinary creative freedom.

"Much to my luck, he still wanted to make a George Benson record," Benson said in 2014's Benson: The Autobiography. "Let me ask you this: Do you want to go for the throat?" Jones asked Benson. "Quincy, let's go for the throat, baby," he responded. "Let's go for the throat."

The result was 1980's career-making Give Me The Night, which garnered three GRAMMYs at the ceremony that year: Best Jazz Performance, Male for "Moody's Mood"; Best R&B Instrumental Performance for "Off Broadway"; and Best R&B Performance, Male for the title track.

Jones has been wildly active ever since. In 1993, he convinced Miles Davis to take a rare look back at his modal-jazz years with Miles and Quincy Live at Montreaux, recorded mere months before Davis's death. In the ensuing decades, he's produced concerts and TV, given no-holds-barred interviews, and soaked up his stature as a titan in the music industry.

In 2018, when Vulture asked Jones if he could snap his fingers and fix one problem in the country, one word flashed in his mind. "Racism," he responded. "I’ve been watching it a long time—the ’30s to now. We’ve come a long way but we’ve got a long way to go. The South has always been fucked up, but you know where you stand. The racism in the North is disguised. You never know where you stand.

"People are fighting it," he added, with Charlottesville in the immediate rearview. "God is pushing the bad in our face to make people fight back."

America may remain in the thick of a racial reckoning, but all the while, Jones has tirelessly facilitated and championed artists of color. He’s seemingly lived a hundred lifetimes and been a force for good in numberless ways. 

But when he brought the best out of his fellow Black American visionaries, that’s when he really went for the throat.

Recording Academy Announces Official GRAMMY Week 2021 Events

Anthony Braxton

Anthony Braxton

Photo: Edu Hawkins

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Anthony Braxton On The Radiance Of Standards, His Search For Charlie Parker & The Forces That Divide America

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The preeminent composer, improviser and saxophonist Anthony Braxton has two new releases on the way: '12 Comp (ZIM) 2017' and 'Quartet (Standards) 2020.' At 76, he's at no loss for words about the American songbook
Morgan Enos
GRAMMYs
Jun 4, 2021 - 12:52 pm

When an interviewer once asked Miles Davis about the nature of a standard, the trumpeter exploded conventional notions of the word before his ears. "You don't have to do like Wynton Marsalis and play 'Stardust' and that s**t," Davis told NME in 1985. "Why can't [Michael Jackson's] 'Human Nature' be a standard? It fits. A standard fits like a thoroughbred."

 In 2021, why does the creative-music composer Anthony Braxton plumb the works of Simon and Garfunkel? Largely for the same reason, he says.

"My friends call me Anthony 'Simon and Garfunkel Boy' Braxton," he announces to GRAMMY.com over Zoom, sounding proud. "I have always loved their great music." On his new boxed set, Quartet (Standards) 2020, which arrives June 18, Braxton not only covers luminaries in the jazz sphere, like Wayne Shorter, John Coltrane and Dave Brubeck, but a handful of classics by the folk duo, like "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)."

"We tend to put people in compartments about what they like or don't like," he continues. "It was wonderful to play that music."

Braxton's two new extended releases don't fit into any compartment. The first, 12 Comp (Zim) 2017, is an 11-hour marathon on Blu-Ray, featuring ensembles ranging from a septet to a nonet. The second, Quartet (Standards) 2020, spans 13 discs. At 76, the composer remains preoccupied with deconstructing categories—not only of genres and forms but of race and politics.

When discussing standards, Braxton's mind shifts to his love of the American songbook in all its forms. From there, he sets his gaze on what—or who—seems to be tearing asunder American unity in 2021. Where many see the modern movement christened "anti-racism" as a wholesale positive, this giant of Black American music sees it as a new, insidious form of separatism.

"The new woke academia is like everything else we see in this period," he asserts. "An inversion where far more people can't tell the difference between reality and fantasy."

Read on for an in-depth conversation with Braxton about his progress on an unimaginably ambitious opera system, why Charlie Parker is his North Star and why he feels those who sow disunity between racial groups deserve contempt.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

How are you, Mr. Braxton?

I'm doing very well in the sense that I'm coming to the end of a project that has lasted for seven years. I think by the end of this week, I'll finally be finished with the opera Trillium L, which is a five-act opera—part of a system that, when completed, will be comprised of 36 acts that can go into many different orders. I'll talk to you about this more as we move along.

I look forward to hearing more about it!

Look, the way I see it—if you're going to be broke, you might as well do your best! From the beginning, it was always clear to me, when I was 15 or 16, that this is an area which will encompass everything I'm looking for. But it won't have anything to do with making money. I have since always tried to advise my students, as you evolve your music, to be sure to get a job or learn about some occupation where you can support yourself and your family.

Because if you're interested in the zone that I'm interested in, there is no way one can make a living from playing this kind of music. And in a strange kind of way, it protects the music. Because if you're interested in making money, it won't take you long to understand that this zone—the zone of creative music and creativity on the plane of creative music and creativity—is a triplane phenomenon. 

It's a subject that won't involve making a lot of money, and if it's money you want, go into the zones where you can make money. I would love to make money! But it just so happens that I made a decision a long time ago. [Voice cracks with emotion.] Hooray! And so I'm going in the direction of the decision I made as a young man when I found myself listening to Warne Marsh and Charlie Parker and I thought [awed silence] "What is this? What is this?" 

And so I'm blessed to still be alive and to be working toward whatever seems to be it, as it relates to the work that I've been doing for something like 60 years—maybe a little more or less. I'm very grateful that I would have the opportunity to be a professional student of music and that the Creator of the universe [voice cracks again] would allow me to outlive my father, my brothers, all except one. 

And here I am, moving toward 76 years of being on this planet. I can't believe it! That's what I would say.

That central question: "What is this?" when you heard Bird and his contemporaries. Have you spent your whole life chasing that question?

Yes, yes, yes. For me, I was somewhat different than my brothers in the sense that I wasn't what you would call a social guy. I didn't go to parties. I didn't like that. I was the kind of guy who either hung out at the train-freight yards of the great New York Central Railroad or the Great Pennsylvania Railroad along with Howard Freeman and Michael Carter. We would check freight schedules and talk to engineers. 

I wasn't what one could call a real hip guy, but I was fortunate to discover the kinds of things that would help me not just be alive, but want to be alive and to be grateful to have the opportunity to experience a spectrum of focuses. Life is really far out. I'm almost 76, and I must say, how miraculous it's been to have the opportunity to play music, meet people and learn about learning. The challenge of trying to learn about yourself.

As the Egyptian mystics would say, the concept of self-realization is the beginning of developing insight into yourself. Because that's one of the first challenges we all have to look at, which is ourselves, our lives, the experiences that we've had. To somehow bring this information together in a way where you can look at life and know how lucky you are to actually have an experience of consciousness. The wonder of manifestation. Life is really something.

Anthony Braxton

Anthony Braxton in 1973. Photo: Ib Skovgaard/JP Jazz Archive/Getty Images

As far as I'm concerned, what we call being alive in this state is—I'll use the word "superior," but that's not really the right word. I'm thinking of the idea of heaven. The idea of hell. The idea of paradise. I'm saying, "Great, great, great." But for me, what I like is manifestation. A design from whatever perspective or non-perspective or vibration that a creator would declare manifestation in the first place.

So, it's like, "Wow, you know? This is really something!" And not only that, but the discipline we call music is intrinsically embedded in the concept of—I'll say actualization or manifestation, but what I'm really trying to say is that everything is music in various densities and intensities. From there, I would say, "Hooray for the Creator, who miraculously brought in manifestation with consciousness!" It doesn't get any better than that. I'll take it!

"Everything is music in various densities and intensities."

More: 'Bitches Brew' At 50: Why Miles Davis' Masterpiece Remains Impactful

Along the lines of Quartet (Standards) 2020, I'm interested in the role of the standard in creative music. I think of Miles Davis saying "A standard fits like a thoroughbred."

Before answering your question—[raises voice astonishedly] You've heard Standards 2020? Wow! Wow! That means it's really coming! It'll be out soon! OK, let me go to your question. 

For me, I'm just a country boy. [Voice cracks with emotion.] I'm a lucky guy to be born an American citizen. When I think about all the great music that's happening—especially the music that's come from Americans—again, I can only just bow to the Creator. Now, as far as I'm concerned, the work that I've dedicated my life to has never been opposed to the tradition. Rather, I see my work as an affirmation of the tradition. 

What I've tried to do every decade is a project from the American Songbook. From the repertoire of the great American people, we take everything for granted. But, actually, in America, we have so much. We have options on so many different levels. There are so many different kinds of musics. We are so lucky, but of course, not everyone is able to recognize how fortunate we are, because it's all around us all the time.

We're so used to abundance, we have somehow come to take things for granted. We have the creativity. We have the men and women who are dedicated. Our complexity, in my opinion, is not whether or not we have the goods.

It's more like, there is a separation between real America and what is being reported about our great country. More and more, there is an effort to teach our young people that America has not been an agent of something positive, but rather, America has been an agent of something that is negative.

I respect everyone's viewpoint, but I would say this. In my opinion, the United States of America is one of the greatest countries that has ever happened to humanity. I think the men and women of America are some of the best people on this planet. But every day, I look at the internet—I gave up television and the radio years ago—and I'm reading about a perspective that is outrageous.

I'm a guy from Albert Ayler. From Dave Brubeck. From Hildegard von Bingen. I live in all their worlds. I'd better go to work and try to come up with something because one of the traditions that exist is the tradition of restructuralism and innovation and exploration. This is not always understood anymore. Of course, young people aren't being exposed to it. The music is not presented on television. 

In fact, when I think about Sun Ra, I think he was on "Saturday Night Live." He had 10-minute sections; two of them were something where he was able to play. So, what am I talking about? I'm talking about a super-great visionary where, if the children could hear this person, they would have to come to a position on some intellectual, spiritual or vibrational level. But, no, we don't get that anymore.

Read: Sun Ra Arkestra's Knoel Scott On New Album 'Swirling,' Sun Ra's Legacy & Music As A Healing Force

Anthony Braxton

Anthony Braxton with pianist Alexander Hawkins, bassist Neil Charles and drummer Stephen Davis. Photo: Edu Hawkins

How are young people growing up going to learn about Charles Ives? How are they going to learn about Dinah Washington and her great work with Quincy Jones? The new generation of educators don't seem to know that information either. So, we watch the ascension of the great nation of China while, at the same time, our country is sinking because many of our young people are not being taught about what and who we really are as Americans.

I'm happy to be coming to an end with Trillium L, which is a five-act opera from 10 to 12 hours. Now—starting, say, in July—I can move to the next Trillium, which will be about change and change-state logics. In my opinion, [that idea] has real relevance because it seems that we are going through a period that's profound. Either we will rescue America or we will find ourselves dealing with change and change-state logics on a tri-centric level.

My hope is that America can hold together. But if no one respects holding together and what that means—and what it means to have a unified country—my viewpoint is that the breakdown after a civil war will be either three countries or four countries in our place. 

America East, America South, America West—we might lose the West, but certainly Northwest—and there could be an insertion somewhere in Kansas, somewhere in the middle of the country. What am I describing? I'm describing the post-woke time parameter that's coming up. Unless change happens, we will have no way to avoid a cataclysmic experience. It's already starting to happen. 

People beating up strangers walking down the street. What the hell is that? People jumping on someone they've never met and beating them up or bullying them. What the hell is that? If you think it happens to "them," maybe you need to go back and study history. Because you are the "them."

There's always room for improvement, but I'm not interested in utopia. No heaven, no paradise. Give me America! There are good people, so-called bad people, people on the left, people on the right.

Do you believe that the modern movement to combat racism might be contributing to a greater split than ever between communities?

There are complex forces in the air that are very separate from what one would have thought. The majority of the American people have been moving forward on the issue of slavery from the beginning. The whole concept of free states and slave states demonstrated immediately that there was opposition to slavery. 

Not only that: The earliest genesis documentation of slavery was part of the menu that every ethnic group experienced. Blacks enslaving Blacks. Caucasians enslaving Caucasians. You name it, we enslaved it. In America, there's always been a movement to challenge those ideas. But you would not know that today!

What we have in this time period is the concept of critical race theory that is far out. I would say this: The American people have unified in such a beautiful way, in such a quick and short time period, when looking at the subject from, say, the last 3- or 4,000 years, that we have everything to be proud of. And yet, what has happened? I would say this: Certain sectors have been brought in to create separatism that didn't really exist in the same way that we are experiencing it now.

It's very fashionable to be racist against white Americans, especially white men. How far motherf**king out! But this could only have happened not only due to one or two deranged stuggy thug guys who decide they would be super-racist. You can always find individuals who are far out. What I'm saying is that someone made the decision to promote that vibration and put it in a different position.

For example, I could say [faux-screams] "Charlie Parker! Charlie Parker! Charlie Parker!" Would it be reported tonight or tomorrow? Who gives a f**k about a Black guy who likes Charlie Parker? If I would say, "Kill everybody, especially if they have a blue coat," then certainly, I'd be accepted. That's what I'm talking about! Someone is making the decision of who is going to succeed and who is not going to succeed.

What a time to be alive! If we lose America, [voice grows grave and slow] shame on us.

Anthony Braxton

Anthony Braxton with bassist Neil Charles and drummer Stephen Davis. Photo: Edu Hawkins

There's some force that wants to keep us divided by racial lines.

I agree completely. In fact, there are several forces which are slicing and dicing our population. Someone is hated because they're from the South! Someone is hated because they're from the Midwest or something! We're being cut like some kind of chef who has all the knives and knows how to dice it up! They're separating us from one another, and they have been very successful.

But more and more, the American people will hopefully begin to look at this. We elected an African-American president and voted for this guy two times! Certainly, it looked as if things were coming together! And now we're at this place, and it's been solidified within 10 or 15 years. Even 15 years ago, it's been better than this! It's gotten really serious, and it's also become crazy.

In being crazy, we have flex-logic possibilities to start to challenge some of these ideas. How did white Americans get to be so evil? I don't [think that]! I think white Americans have been doing very well! Which is why I love white Americans! [livid voice] What the f**k is happening?

We're seeing young African-Americans say, "No, we want our dormitories to only be Black. We want to graduate in a different ceremony from non-African-Americans." Well, if that's the case, why did we waste 150 years of Reconstruction? 

We're running out of time if our hope is to keep America together and moving forward. This, to me, is frightening and depressing. This is the new intellectualism: Critical race theory. The 1619 Project started out with a fundamental error in the whole foundation, accusing America of being racist, when in fact, the spectrum of historians has already looked into most of these questions.

But the new woke academia is like everything else we see in this period: An inversion where far more people can't tell the difference between reality and fantasy. This has become a problem.

I don't agree with racial essentialism and the notion that anyone is poisoned forever by virtue of their birth, always the oppressor, always the conquistador.

I'm going to say this: That perspective, in my opinion, is evil.

We're running long, but thank you for the catharsis about the ills of 2021.

It's good to talk to someone like yourself about what is actually happening in America.

Virtuosos, Voyagers & Visionaries: 5 Artists Pushing Jazz Into The Future

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Tower of Power

Tower of Power

Photo: Rob Shanahan

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Tower Of Power On New Live Album '50 Years Of Funk & Soul' & Why COVID-19 Hasn't Slowed Them Down

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Ahead of their GRAMMY Museum appearance on Thursday, April 22, Tower of Power's Emilio Castillo and David Garibaldi discuss '50 Years Of Funk & Soul' and their half-century in the horn-section game
Morgan Enos
GRAMMY Museum
Apr 22, 2021 - 11:49 am

The pandemic should have been devastating to Tower of Power for two reasons. First, there are nine of them. Second, as a horn-led band, they require a tremendous deal of breath, which tips the odds of viral transmission. But while big bands may be the last animal to rebound from this extinction event, Tower of Power has remained a fertile and thriving enterprise.

How could this be when people are afraid to stand at the same bus stop, much less exhale copious amounts of air onstage together sans masks?

"We're always busy, and we're always pretty much doing the same thing," Tower of Power's indefatigable leader since 1968, Emilio Castillo, tells GRAMMY.com. "I mean, we're doing Tower of Power. That's what we do." The band's last gig may have been 13 months ago, but they're writing at a fever pitch, recording new music and fulfilling speaking engagements.

On the heels of their new live record, 50 Years of Funk & Soul, which arrived March 26, Castillo, drummer David Garibaldi, baritone saxophonist Stephen "Doc" Kupka and keyboardist Roger Smith are having a chat at the GRAMMY Museum on April 22 viewable on the Museum's official streaming platform, COLLECTION:live. 

Expect a chat about the band's half-century history, the vibrant new album and how, in Garibaldi's words, "the story is still being written." Before watching their appearance at the GRAMMY Museum, crank up 50 Years of Funk & Soul exclusively on Qobuz and read on for a GRAMMY.com chat with Castillo and Garibaldi.

The energy of 50 Years of Funk & Soul is palpable. How was the Fox Theater gig? How'd you guys feel up there?

Garibaldi: It was fun! It was good! It was a great experience, man. We worked really hard to make it happen. Emilio, the boss—he ran the whole show. It was great, you know? We survived. We can look back on it and say we really gave it everything we had.

I see here the gig happened three years ago, in 2018.

Garibaldi: It was the 50th anniversary—June shows at the Fox Theater in Oakland. Two nights. It was pretty cool.

How did it feel to come full circle, since you guys have been around since 1968?

Garibaldi: Well, we just do what we do, you know? The story's still being written, so it's kind of cool that we still are relevant today. It's a cool thing.

How about you, Emilio?

Castillo: Very exciting week. Not just the gigs. We went out there a week ahead of time. We rehearsed for, I think, three days, with the augmented band. Then, we brought the strings in on the third day. You know, people were dropping by—old friends. We rehearsed right in Oakland. The guy from Tony! Toni! Toné!, D'wayne Wiggins, let us use his rehearsal hall. 

In the rehearsals, everybody was so excited. It sounded so good. The seven horns, the extra background singers, Chester Thompson, Bruce Conte, Lenny Pickett, [Francis] Rocco [Prestia] ... we felt like we were elevated off the ground or something. And then, the day after the rehearsal, we were on the news and the mayor declared it Tower of Power Day. We had this big scene in front of city hall where they gave us all these parchments. Each guy said what Oakland meant to them. It was unbelievable, you know?

And then the gig. So many people that we've known over the years coming out of the woodwork, man. And the place packed to the max. Beautiful theater. It was the most exciting gig we've done in years.

Garibaldi: Blocks away from where we started! Literally in the same part of downtown Oakland where we started there at the On Broadway [club]. Nobody used to come. Pretty amazing, man.

Tower of Power is predicated on a lot of people being together and a lot of breath. COVID has especially been difficult for horn players. I guess my question is: What have you guys been up to for the last year?

Castillo: Well, you know, we're up to pretty much the same thing every year for the last 50 years. We go out 200 days a year. We play all the time. We have a lot of fun doing it. We travel all over the world. In the last six years or so, it's a lot of recording. We recorded two albums at once and released one for the fiftieth, actually, the day of the concert at the Fox. The other one came out [chuckles] right at the pandemic. And, now, this one is out.

We're always busy, and we're always pretty much doing the same thing. I mean, we're doing Tower of Power. That's what we do.

So it didn't hamper you guys in any way, besides the gigs?

Garibaldi: Oh, it absolutely did. Our last gig was March 8 of last year, a touring gig. And then Labor Day weekend, we did a couple of those drive-in gigs down in Southern California. But, really, that's all we've done in the last year. But that being said, we have a schedule we just saw that's possibly starting in August. It looks pretty normal. It looks like a Tower of Power schedule! So, hopefully, that will happen.

Have you guys been recording during the pandemic?

Castillo: I did a lot of writing. I do a lot of interviews and a lot of speaking. Dave and I spoke at ASU and we're speaking at USC, coming up in a week or so. I spoke at the jazz school—actually, the school that's right above the Fox. I spoke there for an hour about a month ago. We did a session—a couple of sessions. I wrote a song for Lettuce. You know the band Lettuce?

Rings a bell.

Castillo: Yeah, they're kind of a jam band. They kind of had this groove and I started writing the lyrics. I called [baritone saxophonist] Doc [Kupka] and said, "Help me finish this thing real quick." And we did, and then I went over to my friend's studio and sang it and did all the background parts and sent it off to them. You know, we stayed busy.

What can viewers expect from your upcoming GRAMMY Museum appearance?

Castillo: We just interviewed for the GRAMMY Museum. We haven't played or anything. But—check out our records! Check out our new stuff! Get the DVD! It's pretty cool, you know?

Garibaldi: We did something a couple of weeks ago for them.

Castillo: Oh yeah, the Zoom interview! We did a Zoom interview. I think that was the three of us, right?

Garibaldi: Yeah.

Castillo: So, it's kind of what we're doing here. They very well might be playing some excerpts from the live performance. We're doing so many of these things right now that I kind of get lost in the sauce trying to remember all that we've done! But, we did one of these. You're right, Dave.

If shows gear up again soon, what do you see the rest of 2021 and 2022 as looking like? You mentioned that you might go out in August, so I imagine it'll be full speed ahead from then on.

Garibaldi: Hopefully. [laughs]

Castillo: Yeah, that's the plan. You know, you've got to understand we're booked all the time. We've got a whole bunch of gigs that need to be replayed. People had us on their books and even put deposits down. We'll have to go fulfill those along with all the new bookings that come in. Plus, we've had two new products come out during this time. So, we've got to tour the world with all of that. We'll be pushing the envelope worldwide. I'm sure we'll be back to Australia and New Zealand and Korea. Japan. All over Europe.

We're really hoping to go farther, you know. We've never been to South America. We really want to get down there—Brazil, Chile and all around. That's what we do.

The effect I got from the live record was of energy feedback from the audience. That's something we obviously miss greatly, so I hope people will find enough comfort in the vaccine rollout to get shoulder-to-shoulder again. It made me miss that experience.

Garibaldi: We'll see. It might take some time, but people will come out. I don't anticipate it being anything but successful. People want to be entertained. They want to do this—to see music again. And Tower of Power shows are really a lot of fun. It's kind of full-contact stuff. A great band, people coming, having fun, partying with their friends … it's a good time.

Castillo: I'll have to remember that phrase. That's a good description. Going to a Tower of Power concert is a full-contact deal.

Garibaldi: There really is an important factor. On any given night, we can have a good audience, a great audience or a dead audience. Sometimes, we get hired to play the high-paying corporate gigs where people are on the fringes talking about the seminar they went to throughout the day. Those gigs can be kind of a drag.

But usually, at a regular Tower of Power gig, the crowd's really good. And then some are completely off the chain! Anything in the Northeast or Japan or a lot of places in Europe. When that energy is coming at you from them and you're putting off all this energy toward the crowd, the two energies combining just takes it to another level. It's very important—the two meeting.

I'm looking forward to the GRAMMY Museum event. I'm sure you guys will touch on your 50-year history and tell some stories.

Garibaldi: We did! We told stories. But, you know? It's pretty much what we're doing right now. You ask the questions, we answer.

Anything you'd like to add about the immediate future of Tower of Power?

Castillo: You know, I've had a lot of time to write songs, so we're acquiring a lot of material. I'm sure we'll be getting back in the studio again sometime soon. I'd like to do a gospel/praise record and a secular record simultaneously. The idea of going into the studio and recording two albums at once, it really worked. It worked out really good. So, that's my aim and we'll see how it plays out. But every facet of Tower of Power, we just want to push the envelope in every way.

Any gospel records you've been checking out lately that you'd recommend, Emilio?

Castillo: I've just been dining on Fred Hammond lately. His album, Something About Love, which came out—I don't know—ten years ago, is one of my favorites. But recently, I'd gotten an album he did with these three other singers. It's called United Tenors. 

There's something about his records. When I first listened to Something About Love, I was like, "Yeah, this is cool." Then, after three times, I was like, "This is off the chain!" It's the same with this United Tenors record. I listened, I was like [muted affect] "Eh, it's good, it's very good—not as good as that one." Now, it's, like, my favorite record! I'm listening to it over and over!

So, yeah, I listen to a lot of that stuff and Deitrick Haddon and Yolanda Adams and Smokey Norful. I think all the great soul singers have gone back to the church! [laughs] I'm a vocalist guy. I know singers!

What have you been checking out, David?

Garibaldi: I listen to a lot of contemporary jazz sort of stuff, you know? Watching videos of performances, that kind of stuff. There's a gospel drummer, actually, who I'm really, really a big fan of: Calvin Rodgers. He's played on all kinds of peoples' stuff. He played on Fred Hammond's stuff. So, he's a really, really tremendous player.

But I like all kinds of different music. I keep my ears open to all kinds of different things, you know?

GRAMMY Museum April 2021 Schedule: Julian Lage, Tower Of Power, Herbie Hancock & More

Grammys Newsletter

Chaka Khan performs at the 2020 NBA All-Star Game

Chaka Khan performs at the 2020 NBA All-Star Game

Photo: Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

News

Watch Chaka Khan Sing The National Anthem At The 2020 NBA All-Star Game

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The 10-time GRAMMY winner nodded to her native Chicago, where this year's event is being hosted, and NBA legend Michael Jordan
John Ochoa
GRAMMYs
Feb 16, 2020 - 6:44 pm

R&B and soul icon Chaka Khan opened the 2020 NBA All-Star Game today (Feb. 16) with a fiery rendition of the U.S. national anthem.

The 10-time GRAMMY winner and celebrated Queen Of Funk was decked out in a custom basketball jersey that nodded to her native Chicago, where this year's NBA All-Star Game is being hosted, and NBA legend Michael Jordan. 

Khan joins previous GRAMMY winners like Fergie, Anthony Hamilton and Marvin Gaye who have performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the big game.

Khan has kept busy on the music and live front over the past two years. In 2019, she toured with Michael McDonald, performed at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, dazzled fans at the Bulova Brunch during GRAMMY Week and released her 12th album, Hello Happiness.

Read: Jennifer Hudson Delivers Touching Tribute To Kobe Bryant At The 2020 NBA All-Star Game

She received her most recent GRAMMY wins at the 50th GRAMMY Awards, held in 2008, when she took home two golden gramophones for her 2007 album, Funk This: Best R&B Album and Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals for album single "Disrespectful," featuring Mary J. Blige.

Khan's performance is part of a stacked musical lineup at the 2020 NBA All-Star Game and Weekend, which includes performances from: Jennifer Hudson, who's paying tribute to the late NBA icon Kobe Bryant; Queen Latifah, who covered Stevie Wonder; and Chance The Rapper, who's delivering a star-studded halftime show later tonight alongside DJ Khaled, Migos rapper Quavo and Lil Wayne. 

Read: Chance The Rapper, DJ Khaled, Quavo and Lil Wayne Deliver Star-Studded Halftime Show At The 2020 NBA All-Star Game

Other artists who performed and appeared throughout the weekend include Common, Chance The Rapper's brother and fellow rapper, Taylor Bennett, Megan Thee Stallion, Normani, Jeremih and others. 

Queen Latifah Delivers Soulful Performance Of Stevie Wonder's "Love's In Need Of Love Today" At NBA All-Star 2020 Weekend

Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Beyoncé, Mariah Carey

Photos: WireImage.com

List

Michael Jackson, Beyoncé, Jay-Z: 25 GRAMMY Record Setters | Black History Month

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From wins and nominations to momentous firsts and incredible feats, take a look at 25 GRAMMY records set by African-Americans
Paul Grein
GRAMMYs
Feb 8, 2018 - 3:50 pm

African-American artists have been making history at the GRAMMYs since the awards were first presented on May 4, 1959. Ella Fitzgerald and Count Basie each took home two awards that night.

Watch: Kendrick Lamar Wins Best Rap Album

And they have continued to be at the forefront right through this year, when Kendrick Lamar scooped up five GRAMMYs (bringing his total to date to an even dozen).

To help celebrate Black History Month, here are 25 GRAMMY records set by African-American artists. Note: This isn't just a list of the first African-American winners in various categories — though those milestones are meaningful in their own right. These are instances where an African-American artist or producer set a record in competition with everybody.

1. Michael Jackson

The first artist to win eight GRAMMYs in one night: Michael Jackson (1983). In that Thriller of a year, Jackson also became the first artist to amass 12 nominations in one night.

Michael Jackson Wins Record Of The Year

2. Quincy Jones

Artist with the most GRAMMY nominations: Quincy Jones (79). Jones landed his first noms in 1960; his most recent in 2001.

3. Beyoncé And Jay-Z

The only couple where both individuals have received 20 or more GRAMMYs: Beyoncé and Jay-Z. At last count, she has amassed 22 GRAMMYs. He has won 21.

Beyoncé wins Best Urban Contemporary Album GRAMMY

4. Beyoncé

The youngest artist to amass 20 career GRAMMYs: Beyoncé, who was 33 when she picked up her 18th, 19th and 20th GRAMMYs at the 2014 awards. She broke a record that was held by Kanye West, who was 35 when he collected his 19th, 20th and 21st GRAMMYs at the 2012 awards.

5. Mariah Carey

The youngest artist to receive nominations in each of the four General Field categories (Record, Album and Song Of The Year and Best New Artist): Mariah Carey, who was 20 when she was nominated in all four categories for 1990. She won for Best New Artist.

Mariah Carey Wins Best New Artist

6. Stevie Wonder

The only artist in GRAMMY history to win Album Of The Year with three consecutive studio albums: Stevie Wonder. He achieved this extraordinary three-peat with Innervisions (1973), Fulfillingness' First Finale (1974) and Songs In The Key Of Life (1976).

7. Stevie Wonder

The first artist to win Album Of The Year with an entirely self-produced album: Stevie Wonder (Innervisions).

8. Stevie Wonder

The youngest artist to win his third GRAMMY for Album Of The Year: Stevie Wonder, who was just 26 when he won for the third time with Songs In The Key Of Life.

9. Ray Charles

The artist with the longest span of Album Of The Year nominations: Ray Charles. His noms in the category span 43 years, from Genius + Soul = Jazz (1961) to Genius Loves Company (2004).

10. Ella Fitzgerald

The first woman to receive an Album Of The Year nomination: Ella Fitzgerald, who was nominated in 1958, the awards' first year, for Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Irving Berlin Song Book.

11. Roberta Flack

The first artist to win back-to-back awards for Record Of The Year: Roberta Flack ("The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," 1972, and "Killing Me Softly With His Song," 1973).

Roberta Flack Wins Record of the Year

12. The 5th Dimension

The first group or duo to win twice for Record Of The Year: The 5th Dimension. The vocal quintet won for "Up, Up And Away" (1967) and "Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures)" (1969).

13. Ray Charles

The artist with the longest span of Record Of The Year nominations: Ray Charles. His noms in the category span 44 years, from "Georgia On My Mind" (1960) to "Here We Go Again," a collaboration with Norah Jones (2004).

14. Thom Bell

The first producer to win for Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical: Thom Bell (1974, the first year the award was presented).

15. Quincy Jones

The first producer to win twice for Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical: Quincy Jones. He shared his second award with Michael Jackson. Jones was also the first producer to win three times in the category.

Quincy Jones Wins Producer Of The Year

16. Babyface

The only producer to win four times for Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical: Babyface. He shared the first of these awards with his partner, L.A. Reid.

17. Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis

The producer(s) with the most nominations for Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical: Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis. The hit-making team amassed 11 noms from 1986–2005. They won the award for 1986.

18. Aretha Franklin

Most consecutive awards in any category: Aretha Franklin, eight consecutive awards for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female (1967–1974). The streak kicked off with the immortal "Respect." They don't call her the "Queen Of Soul" for nothing.

19. Ella Fitzgerald

The first woman to receive a GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award: Ella Fitzgerald (1967).

20. Lauryn Hill

The first woman to win five GRAMMYs in one night: Lauryn Hill (1998). Her awards included Album Of The Year for The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill.

21. Beyoncé

The first woman to win six GRAMMYs in one night: Beyoncé (2009). Her awards included Song Of The Year for "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)."

22. Ray Charles

Most posthumous GRAMMYs in one night (five): Ray Charles (2004). His awards included Album Of The Year for Genius Loves Company.

23. Pinetop Perkins

The oldest artist to win a GRAMMY: Pinetop Perkins, who was 97 when he won Best Traditional Blues Album for Joined At The Hip (2010).

24. Elizabeth Cotten

The oldest female artist to win a GRAMMY: Elizabeth Cotten, who was 90 when she won Best Ethnic Or Traditional Folk Recording for Elizabeth Cotten Live! (1984). (She was 26 days older than Betty White was when she won the 2011 award for Best Spoken Word Album (Includes Poetry, Audio Books & Storytelling). Hey, days count in GRAMMY record-setting.)

25. Deleon Richards

The youngest individual artist to receive a GRAMMY nomination: Deleon Richards, who was just eight when she was nominated for Best Soul Gospel Performance — Female for her album Deleon (1985).

(Paul Grein is a veteran music journalist and historian whose work appears regularly at Yahoo.com and Hitsdailydouble.com.)

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