ASCAP Henry Mancini Award
Honoring Quincy Jones

For his singular achievements in the world of film and television music, ASCAP is proud to present the Henry Mancini Award to Quincy Jones.

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"Q" is a man who has reached more musical milestones than virtually anyone in recent musical history.

It is difficult to talk about his career because he has had so many, and nearly all have overlapped: songwriter, composer, musician, producer, arranger, improviser, bandleader, A&R executive, film and television composer, record company president, magazine publisher, entrepreneur, tastemaker. He is, or has been, all of those things, and he has worked with some of the greatest names in music from the past five decades: Count Basie, Tommy Dorsey, Frank Sinatra, Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughan, Oscar Pettiford, Dinah Washington, the Reverend James Cleveland, Ray Charles, Cannonball Adderley, Aretha Franklin, Milt Jackson, Ella Fitzgerald, Betty Carter, Michael Jackson and so many others.

His accomplishments trace the course of popular music over the second half of this century. He was producer of both "We Are The World" and Michael Jackson's Thriller, until recently the biggest selling single and album of all time. He was the first high-level African American executive of an established major record company, as well as the first major African American film composer. He arranged the first song played on the moon. He is the all-time most nominated Grammy artist (77), and has won the second-most number of Grammys (26). He has scored, at last count, 33 films, including The Pawnbroker, The Slender Thread, Walk Don't Run, Enter Laughing, In Cold Blood, In the Heat of the Night, For the Love Of Ivy, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, Cactus Flower, MacKenna's Gold, They Call Me Mister Tibbs!, The Anderson Tapes, The Getaway, The New Centurions, The Wiz, and The Color Purple.

It would be difficult to find a person in the Western World whose life has not been touched by the work of Quincy Jones.

A Quincy Jones Timeline

March 14, 1933: Quincy Delight Jones Jr. born in Chicago, and raised in Seattle.

Late 1940s: Attends two of the country's most prestigious music schools (Schillinger and Berklee) until he receives an offer to work with Lionel Hampton, writing arrangements and playing in a trumpet section with Clifford Brown and Art Farmer.

1951: Moves to New York and becomes in-demand arranger and musician, working with Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Ray Charles, Tommy Dorsey, Cannonball Adderley and Dinah Washington among many others.

1956: Tours with Dizzy Gillespie's big band; makes first recording as a leader.

1957: Moves to Paris to study with legendary music teacher Nadia Boulanger (whose alumni include Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland); simultaneously works at French label Barclay Disques, recording Charles Aznavour, Jacques Brel, Henri Salvador, and visiting Americans like Sarah Vaughan, Billy Eckstine and Andy Williams.

1959: Tours Europe with his all-star big band, with whom he also records extensively.

1961: Returns to New York and becomes the first high-level African American executive of an established major record company, as head of Mercury Records' A&R department.

1963: Wins first Grammy for his Count Basie arrangement of "I Can't Stop Loving You"; begins work on music for Sidney Lumet's The Pawnbroker, the first of his 33 major motion picture scores.

1969: His arrangement of "Fly Me To The Moon" is the first recording played by astronaut Buzz Aldrin when he lands on the moon.

Late 1960s/1970s: Extensive film and television work, including I Spy, Ironsides, and Sanford & Son.

1978-79: Wins an Emmy for his work on the monumental miniseries Roots; produces Michael Jackson's blockbuster album Off The Wall.

1980: Quincy's The Dude album released, which features Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, and James Ingram and spawns three hit singles.

1982: Produces Michael Jackson's Thriller, for many years the biggest-selling album of all time.

1985: Debuts as film producer, co-producing Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Alice Walker's The Color Purple, which wins 11 Oscar nominations; produces "We Are The World" charity single, for years the biggest-selling single of all time; founds Qwest Records, which features New Order, Tevin Campbell , Milt Jackson, Tamia, and André Crouch.

1989: Quincy's album Back On The Block released, which unites Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Miles Davis together with Ice T, Big Daddy Kane and Melle Mel to create the first fusion of bebop and hip-hop; wins "Album Of The Year" at the 1990 Grammy Awards.

1991: Executive produces NBC-TV's hit series The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air, which helps launch the acting career of rapper and film star Will Smith.

1992: Executive produces "An American Reunion" all-star concert at the Lincoln Memorial - the first official event of the Presidential Inaugural celebration; Quincy Jones Enterprises co-produces the currently running UPN's In The House and Fox Television's Mad TV; founds and becomes chairman of VIBE magazine and part-owner of SPIN magazine.

1993: Releases Miles Davis & Quincy Jones: Live At Montreux, which features Quincy conducting Miles Davis' live performance of historic Gil Evans arrangements; album wins Grammy Award.

1994: Becomes chairman and CEO of Qwest Broadcasting, one of the largest minority-owned broadcasting companies in the United States; releases Q's Jook Joint album, featuring Bono, Brandy, Ray Charles, Gloria Estefan, Heavy D., Chaka Khan, R. Kelly and Barry White, among many others.

1998: Founds Qradio, an Internet and syndicated radio network specializing in music from all over the world; forms Quincy Jones Media Group, Inc., with the following feature films in development: The Life Of Alexander Pushkin (with Milos Forman directing); Vacuums (in conjunction with creators of Stomp); The Story of J. Edgar Hoover (co-produced by Quincy and Francis Ford Coppola, directed by the Hughes Brothers); The Godfather Of Rock 'n' Roll, starring Robert De Niro (produced with Tribeca films and written by Stephen Schiff), and several television and cable projects.

Quotes from the Warner Bros. film, Listen Up: The Lives of Quincy Jones. Photos from the Quincy Jones Archives except where noted.