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Jazz sampled in hip-hop
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Who Did Your Favorite Rappers Sample? ludacris-nas-8-hip-hop-tracks-sampled-jazz-musicians

Ludacris To Nas: 8 Hip-Hop Tracks That Sampled Jazz Musicians

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Celebrate jazz by tracing the interpretation of music from noted jazz artists through the lens of hip-hop sampling
Brian Haack
GRAMMYs
May 15, 2017 - 2:36 am

Hip-hop and jazz are inextricably linked. Each genre is built on a foundational groove with a heavy emphasis on improvisation, and subtle nods to the music and themes of preceding generations.

With regards to hip-hop, the modern practice of sampling provides a strong connection to the more traditional roots of jazz. Since the inception of the genre, adept jazz players have often been known to quote the melodies of common jazz standards and other well-known songs as part of their improvisational toolbox. For example, Charlie Parker famously quoted Igor Stravinsky's "Rite Of Spring" in his solo on a 1947 recording "Repetition."

Take a look back at eight of our favorite hip-hop tracks that pulled samples and influence from GRAMMY jazz royalty.

Busta Rhymes, "Intro" | Herb Alpert, "A Taste Of Honey"

Jazz trumpeter Herb Alpert won his first three GRAMMYs for Record Of The Year, Best Instrumental Performance, Non-Jazz and Best Instrumental Arrangement for his crossover hit "A Taste Of Honey" at the 8th GRAMMY Awards. The brass sample from the recording comprises the main instrumental riff on Busta Rhymes' "Intro," the opening track from his platinum-certified album Genesis. His track also opens with a skit recording of a motivational phone call to the Brooklyn, N.Y.-based rapper from Clive Davis.

 

Intro

  

A Taste Of Honey

Nas, "Can't Forget About You" | Nat "King" Cole, "Unforgettable"

Nat "King" Cole's rendition of Irving Gordon's "Unforgettable" has a rich GRAMMY history. Originally released in 1951, Cole revisited the tune for a fresh take on his 1961 album, The Nat King Cole Story, which garnered an Album Of The Year nomination at the 4th GRAMMY Awards. His rendition was also inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame in 2000. Producer will.i.am's sampling of Cole's "Unforgettable" gives Nas a perfect groove over which to lay down his iconic flow on "Can't Forget About You."

 

Can't Forget About You

  

Unforgettable

Mobb Deep,  "Me & My Crew" | Miles Davis, "Bitches Brew"

Though deemed unconventional at the time, eight-time GRAMMY winner Miles Davis' Bitches Brew was sonically formative for many improvisational rock and funk musicians for years to come. The 1970 album also earned Davis a GRAMMY for Best Jazz Performance — Large Group Or Soloist With Large Group at the 13th GRAMMYs. Producers Dale Hogan and Keith Spencer incorporated much of the ambience from Bitches Brew's title track when crafting the beat for "Me & My Crew" from Mobb Deep's 1993 debut album, Juvenile Hell.

 

Me & My Crew

  

Bitches Brew

Ludacris, "Number One Spot" | Quincy Jones, "Soul Bossa Nova"

The multitalented Quincy Jones has climbed to the top of the GRAMMY heap with 27 career wins. One of his early claims to fame is "Soul Bossa Nova," a swanky instrumental number released in 1962. (You may know the tune from the late-'90s Austin Powers films.) Working with Atlanta-based rapper Ludacris on 2004's The Red Light District, DJ Green Lantern sampled the main melody of Jones' samba-inspired bossa nova swing groove, while Ludacris packed his verse with inside jokes and sly nods to the off-kilter spy movies that had repurposed the song.

Top GRAMMY Winners: Where does Quincy Jones rank?

 

Number One Spot

  

Soul Bossa Nova

De La Soul, "En Focus" | Herbie Hancock, "Rockit"

Fourteen-time GRAMMY winner Herbie Hancock took home his first golden gramophone at the 26th GRAMMY Awards for Best R&B Instrumental Performance for "Rockit" for 1983. It is widely considered the first popular song to incorporate scratching and turntablist techniques, courtesy of pioneering DJ GrandMixer D.X.T. A decade later, Long Island, N.Y.-based hip-hop trio De La Soul drew rhythmic elements from Hancock's recording for their track "En Focus" on their 1993 album, Buhloone Mindstate.

 

Rockit

D.J. Jazzy Jeff And The Fresh Prince, "Time To Chill" | George Benson, "Breezin'"

GRAMMY winner George Benson's Breezin' became a breakout success for the jazz guitarist/songwriter, including winning the GRAMMY for Best Pop Instrumental Performance at the 19th GRAMMYs. In crafting the beats for their album He's The DJ, I'm The Rapper, D.J. Jazzy Jeff And The Fresh Prince sampled the catchy flute lines from the title track of Breezin' and repurposed it for the relaxed hook on "Time To Chill."

 

Time to Chill

  

Breezin' - Remastered

MURS feat. The Grouch, "Angels" | Bob James, "Moon Tune"

GRAMMY winners Bob James and David Sanborn collaborated for 1986's Double Vision, which netted the jazz keyboardist and saxophonist the GRAMMY for Best Jazz Fusion Performance, Vocal Or Instrumental at the 29th GRAMMY Awards. Los Angeles-based underground rappers MURS and the Grouch sampled "Moon Tune" from Double Vision on "Angels" for their 1999 album Good Music. The two lyricists take turns tag teaming their trademark relaxed-intelligentsia flows over the atmospheric bed provided by James' keyboard work.

 

Angels

  

Moon Tune

Gang Starr, "Jazz Thing" | Duke Ellington, "Upper Manhattan Medical Group"

When curating the soundtrack for his 1990 musical drama, Mo' Better Blues, director Spike Lee included a track by then-unknown underground rap duo Gang Starr called "Jazz Thing," which heavily sampled multi-GRAMMY winner Duke Ellington's 1959 tune "Upper Manhattan Medical Group." Gang Starr became an influential group in the development of the East Coast rap sound — in many ways mirroring the influence Ellington exerted on the fledgling sounds of New York jazz in his own time.

 

Jazz Thing

  

Upper Manhattan Medical Group

From jazz samples to west-coast trap: What will Kendrick Lamar's new album mean for his legacy?

Quincy Jones

Quincy Jones

Photo: Rebecca Sapp/Stringer via Getty Images

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How Quincy Jones Architected Black Music mogul-moment-how-quincy-jones-architected-black-music

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

Whitney Houston performs at the 29th GRAMMYs

Whitney Houston, 29th GRAMMY Awards

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GRAMMY Performances Available Via Apple Music apple-music-exclusive-watch-classic-grammy-performances

Apple Music Exclusive: Watch Classic GRAMMY Performances

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The Recording Academy teams with Apple Music to offer historical GRAMMY performances by Miles Davis, Marvin Gaye, Whitney Houston, Shania Twain, Kendrick Lamar, and more
Tim McPhate
GRAMMYs
Nov 24, 2017 - 6:00 am

To celebrate the GRAMMY Awards' 60th anniversary and the show's return to New York for the first time in 15 years, the Recording Academy and Apple Music are bringing fans a special video collection of exclusive GRAMMY performances and playlists that represent the illustrious history of Music's Biggest Night.

Available exclusively via Apple Music in a dedicated GRAMMYs section, the celebratory collection features 60-plus memorable performances specifically curated across six genres: pop, rap, country, rock, R&B, and jazz. 

The artist performances featured in the collection include Marvin Gaye, "Sexual Healing" (25th GRAMMY Awards, 1983); Whitney Houston, "Greatest Love Of All" (29th GRAMMY Awards, 1987); Run DMC, "Tougher Than Leather" (30th GRAMMY Awards, 1988); Miles Davis, "Hannibal" (32nd GRAMMY Awards, 1990); Shania Twain, "Man, I Feel Like A Woman" (41st GRAMMY Awards, 1999); Dixie Chicks, "Landslide" (45th GRAMMY Awards, 2003); Bruno Mars and Sting, "Locked Out Of Heaven" and "Walking On The Moon" (55th GRAMMY Awards, 2013); and Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker The Berry" (58th GRAMMY Awards, 2016).

The 60th GRAMMY Awards will take place at New York City's Madison Square Garden on Sunday, Jan. 28, 2018. The telecast will be broadcast live on CBS at 7:30–11 p.m. ET/4:30–8 p.m. PT. 

Carrie Underwood, John Legend To Host "GRAMMYs Greatest Stories"

George Avakian photographed in 2009

George Avakian

Photo: Brian To/FilmMagic

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Former Academy Chair George Avakian: 1919–2017 george-avakian-producer-talent-scout-past-academy-chair-dies

George Avakian: Producer, Talent Scout & Past Academy Chair Dies

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Trustees Award recipient who played a role in the careers of Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck and Bob Newhart has died at age 98
Renée Fabian
GRAMMYs
Nov 22, 2017 - 8:01 pm

Esteemed record producer, talent scout, manager, and past Recording Academy Chairman/President George Avakian has died, according to The New York Times. While no cause of death was given, the news was confirmed by his daughter, Anahid Avakian Gregg. He was 98 years old.

Miles Davis Wins Best Jazz Performance — Large Group

Born in Armavir, Russia, Avakian immigrated with his family to the United States as an infant. Growing up an avid jazz fan, he was already a published jazz critic by the time he was a sophomore at Yale University.

Avakian's career as a producer and talent scout began in 1939 when he convinced Decca Records to let him record prominent jazz musicians on the Chicago scene, which became a six-set of recordings titled Chicago Jazz. According to critics and historians, this is considered as the first jazz album.

Throughout his storied eight-decade-plus career with labels such as Decca, Columbia Records, Warner Bros. Records, RCA Records, and Sony Legacy, Avakian worked with the likes of Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Dave Brubeck, Sonny Rollins, Bob Newhart, Johnny Mathis, John Cage, and Ravi Shankar, among other music legends. 

In the process, he helped cultivate influential recordings such as Armstrong's Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy (1954), Ellington's Ellington At Newport (1956), Brubeck's Brubeck Plays Brubeck (1956), and Davis' Miles Ahead (1957), and Rollins' On The Outside (1966).

Also heralded for popularizing liner notes, he earned one career GRAMMY at the 39th GRAMMY Awards for Best Album Notes for The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings by Davis and Gil Evans. He was honored with the Recording Academy's Trustees Award in 2009 for his outstanding contributions to the music industry during his lifetime. 

A great friend to the Academy, Avakian served as the seventh Chairman/President of the organization from 1966–1967. 

"In a career spanning more than 40 years, George achieved several notable milestones including popularizing liner notes, helping establish long-playing albums as the industry standard, and developing the first jazz reissue series," said Recording Academy President/CEO Neil Portnow. "We have lost an integral member of our creative community. Our condolences go out to George's family, friends, and fellow collaborators."

Recording Academy Remembers Fats Domino

GRAMMYs
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Quincy Jones launches jazz video on demand channel quincy-jones-enlists-kickstarter-launches-jazz-video-demand-channel

Quincy Jones enlists Kickstarter, launches jazz video on-demand channel

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27-time GRAMMY winner looks to carry the legacy of jazz for "many generations to come"
Brian Haack
GRAMMYs
Jul 18, 2017 - 5:31 pm

Quincy Jones is truly a GRAMMY Legend.

In addition to being one of only 15 artists in history to be honored with a GRAMMY Legend Special Merit Award, he is also one of the winningest artists in GRAMMY history.

So it seems that just about everything Jones touches musically turns to gold. That's why we are excited about the announcement that he will be teaming with television producer and noted jazz patron Reza Ackbaraly to launch a brand-new subscription video on-demand service dedicated entirely to jazz and jazz-inspired music programming.

Qwest TV will debut in fall 2017, and is expected to be packed with a curated, personalized selection of exclusive original content encompassing live concerts, documentaries, interviews and archival footage.

The early plans for the network include a forward-thinking crowd-sourced pre-launch phase, which will open on Sept. 6 via Kickstarter. The first 1,500 users to sign up via the crowdfunding platform will be classed as "co-founding subscribers," and will receive a free year of premium access, as well as having a direct line of communication to the Qwest TV team to give consumer feedback, make specific feature requests, and a whole host of additional benefits only available through the Kickstarter promotion.

Sharing his excitement over the launch of the new platform, Jones explained, "The dream of Qwest TV is to let jazz and music lovers everywhere experience these incredibly rich and diverse musical traditions in a whole new way.  …it is my hope that Qwest TV will serve to carry forth and build on the great legacy that is jazz for many generations to come."

Keeping the sound alive: How Esperanza Spalding went from jazz bassist to Smithsonian curator

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Some of the content on this site expresses viewpoints and opinions that are not those of the Recording Academy and its Affiliates. Responsibility for the accuracy of information provided in stories not written by or specifically prepared for the Academy and its Affiliates lies with the story's original source or writer. Content on this site does not reflect an endorsement or recommendation of any artist or music by the Recording Academy and its Affiliates.