Quincy Jones returns to Berklee to help students set their sights on success.

By Rob Hochschild
Berklee.edu Editor
June 23, 2004

	Quincy Jones took student questions for one hour.
	Photo by Phil Farnsworth

But in his recent visit to Berklee for a question-and-answer session, Jones didn't talk down to the students. He spoke with them as equals, and responded to their questions with a frankness and generosity that seemed to indicate it was as likely that any of them could succeed as well as he has.

"Forget about categories and don't get hung up in one kind of music," Jones said when asked for advice on entering today's music industry. "Please don't give up jazz and blues. I love 50 Cent. I love Mos Def. Beyoncé, I love her. But I'm not giving up Miles and Coltrane, Duke, and Dizzy for that. You don't have to make that choice. Take it all."

Later calling jazz "the classical music of our pop music," Jones returned to the theme several times, citing Marvin Gaye, Donnie Hathaway, Stevie Wonder, and Jimi Hendrix as some of the pop artists who were heavily influenced by jazz.

Jones articulated concerns about the quality of today's popular music, the need for better distribution models, and other challenges surrounding contemporary music. In response to a question about the preponderance of sexual images in music marketing, Jones first lamented the trend, then pointed the finger at the sheep-like behavior of today's music consumers.

"We've almost gotten to a point where it's 98.5 percent image and one-and-a-half percent content, and that's sad," Jones said. "But you know what? It wouldn't happen unless an audience was reacting to it...The media has a lot to do with it, too." But he didn't leave the topic without trying to reassure students. "If you've got an original sound, expression, the voice and everything else, you shouldn't have to be lured, and I really mean that, to pull all your clothes off."

The industry's "flawed" distribution system worries Jones as much as "imaging and stuff," he said. Stating that the music business is in a "serious state," he argued that it is still recovering from a failure to respond quickly enough to the possibilities of digital distribution.

"The reality that we have to deal with technology should have been done earlier, and that's why record companies are in such trouble," said Jones, adding that he spends one day a week with Napster founder Shawn Fanning, who now heads up a company, Snocap, that is developing file-swapping technology for record companies.

	Quincy Jones and Gary Burton chat in a Berklee classroom prior to Jones's clinic.
	Photo by Phil Farnsworth

The Q-and-A session, which was moderated by Gary Burton, executive vice president, prompted several student questions relating to producing and engineering records. When asked how he elicited stellar performances from artists, Jones talked about the producer-artist bond.

"I would advise you not to go into the studio with a person you don't like," he said. "When you love an artist and an artist has respect for the producer, you love them enough to go right into their soul and see whether it's detrimental to do another take or...take a rest."

Throughout the talk, Jones revealed a sharp mind with wide-ranging interests, some of which veered far away from the subject of music. He mentioned nanotechnology; his desire to see Oprah Winfrey, Hillary Clinton, or Colin Powell "running our country"; and an Internet marketing concept called the Cluetrain Manifesto.

But at the end of the hour, he brought it back to music and urged students to aim for the highest goals they can imagine.

"Overprepare yourself for the opportunity and don't take any kind of bad for granted, because it's going to change, I promise you," Jones said. "Dream a dream so big that if you just get half of it, you'll still do okay. But don't hesitate, dream big, man. Throw it out there. Lay out in bed at night and think about the biggest dream you can in your field and prepare yourself to do it. If you can see it, you can be it."