Mark Ronson Remembers Quincy Jones in Moving Tribute

Mark Ronson is remembering legendary producer Quincy Jones.

In an emotional piece shared with The Guardian on Thursday (Dec. 26), Ronson mirrored on his private experiences working with Jones — who handed away in November on the age of 91 — and the profound impression the music icon had on his life and profession.

“Shedding Quincy is sort of a black gap swallowing a part of the musical universe,” Ronson wrote. “However his work will dwell without end, as will his classes. Maintain striving for that deeper information. At all times go away area for one thing larger than your self. As a result of typically, magic occurs once we get out of the way in which.”

Ronson opened the tribute by recalling a passage from Jones’ 2001 autobiography, Q, wherein the legendary musician describes strolling away from a profitable profession as a way to research music concept and composition in Paris.

“Think about reaching the head of success, particularly as a younger Black musician in segregated Nineteen Fifties America, and saying thanks, however I’m beginning over for the sake of chords and concord,” Ronson wrote. “I fantasize about having that form of braveness.”

“However that’s the peril of holding Quincy as a yardstick,” he continued. “He’s an unimaginable commonplace. For producers and arrangers like me, he didn’t simply elevate the bar; he hid it the place nobody might attain.”

Ronson additionally mirrored on the years he spent with Jones, significantly when he was engaged to the legendary producer’s daughter, Rashida Jones, within the early 2000s. The 2 producers additionally collaborated on the tune “Maintain Reachin’,” that includes Chaka Khan, for the 2018 Netflix documentary Quincy, directed by Rashida Jones.

“Over time, he would ship me sort notes — he had a specific fondness for Amy [Winehouse] — and we’d typically hang around at any time when I performed the Montreux jazz pageant, his beloved stomping floor,” Ronson wrote. “Seeing him there, stage proper, seated in his director’s chair — trying each bit the debonair godfather of music, smiling again at you — elicited a wild mixture of feelings.”

He added, “The best producer and arranger of all time, watching your each transfer, was completely terrifying. And but he solely radiated generosity. All he needed was so that you can win, to shine. He had already achieved the unimaginable. Now he existed as one thing uncommon and exquisite — a benevolent cheerleader for the surprise of music itself.”

Jones handed away on Nov. 3 at his residence in Los Angeles. A 28-time Grammy Award winner, Jones was revered for his groundbreaking work as a producer and arranger on iconic albums, together with Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982) and Unhealthy (1987).

Jones was additionally the guiding power behind the recording of the all-star charity single “We Are the World” in 1985, which rose to No. 1 on the Billboard Sizzling 100 and featured a star-studded lineup of artists, together with Jackson, Cyndi Lauper, Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, Billy Joel, Diana Ross, Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner and Kenny Rogers.