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Comment by linguae | Hacker News Reader

As a jazz aficionado, I am very familiar with Quincy Jones’ immense contributions to music. I am a very big fan of the albums he produced, such as “The Dude” and “Back on the Block.”

What is less well known is Quincy Jones’ involvement with computing. At one point he was on the advisory committee for the ACM Computers in Entertainment Magazine (https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/973801.973803), and if I remember correctly, he was on the board of former Xerox PARC researcher Alan Kay’s Viewpoints Research Institute. I’ve been wanting to know more about Quincy Jones’ involvement with computing since I first learned about this a few years ago.

Rest in peace. Quincy Jones is a legendary figure.

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> What is less well known is Quincy Jones’ involvement with computing.

Also, he worked on debt forgiveness in African countries.

Also, he studied music composition with Nadia Boulanger (who taught Aaron Copland and many other classical composers) and studied harmony with Olivier Messiaen.

Also, he wrote the television theme song to Red Foxx's "Sanford and Son," plus a lot of other popular themes.

In fact, every time someone is about to get killed in Kill Bill[1], you hear a sample of music written by Quincy Jones.

1: except for Bill.

The funniest use of Ironside theme (Kill Bill excerpt), I've seen, was a video on YouTube about Han Solo when Leia tells him that Luke is her brother (in ROJ) and he has this crazy realization when they kiss in Empire.

Here you go. I can agree, the comedic timing is excellent.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=lQDvsf5lAp0

Having watched a bunch of Ironside reruns lately I hoped this is what I thought it was and wasn’t disappointed.

He also wrote the memorable Soul Bossa Nova used in Austin Powers.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=FF258xH5bNw

The video is not authentic, but it should have been.

My favorite Quincy Jones song everybody knows is the Sanford and Son theme song, aka "The Streetbeater": https://youtube.com/watch?v=T5DnqW3F57E

I've never heard this before. Though I'm from the UK which might explain it

Here is a cool video of Herbie Hancock explaining his synthesizer / recording computer setup to Jones: https://old.reddit.com/r/OldSchoolCool/comments/sswplq/herbi...

Amazing to watch Herbie Hancock approach the synth / sampler keys as its own instrument distinct from piano or rhodes or clav. He’s very comfortable with the stylus and touchscreen ui, too. They fit snugly into his workflow to where it feels like he helped develop them. Any videos on that? I’ll review the old Rock School videos from this same period. Quincy Jones is so lucky his dad took him to see Mr. Hancock.

I couldn't find any information - I think the instrument there is a Fairlight CMI, which Peter Gabriel actually helped develop. But considering how prominent Hancock was in electronic music it wouldn't surprise me if this was built custom. OTOH Hancock likes computers in general so maybe he's just a nerd :) https://old.reddit.com/r/OldSchoolCool/comments/120mqfs/herb...

Bonus cute video of Hancock showing the Fairlight off on Sesame Street: https://youtube.com/watch?v=daLceM3qZmI

The synth he's playing - making the synth brass sounds - is a Rhodes Chroma.

The Fairlight is being used as a drum machine. The Fairlight's keyboard controller is the one he points to at around 30s. The Fairlight's screen sequencer - called Page R - was easier than keyboard entry for drum and bass line programming.

I don't think Hancock did any development work or had any customisation done. (Except for the black case for the keyboard. Usually they were PC beige.)

It's fascinating this tech still has a legendary aura even though it's forty years old and has been completely outclassed by a cheap modern laptop and MIDI controller.

As for Quincy - a lot of people think talent is really just effort. But some people just have it - a deep instinctive feel for what they're doing - and he clearly did.

Effort will get one far even without natural talent Effort and talent cannot be surpassed.

A friend of mine met Herbie on a Buddhist summer camp. She said he's an incredibly nice, humble guy as you would sort of imagine, he introduced himself to everyone as "Hi I'm Herbie, I'm a pianist". She didn't know anything about him so asked him what sort of music he played and he said she should listen to "Maiden Voyage". She became a jazz singer as a result.

> if I remember correctly, he was on the board of former Xerox PARC researcher Alan Kay’s Viewpoints Research Institute

Alan Kay knew him from before then. On Kay Savetz's podcast, one of Alan Kay's researchers at Atari (Donald Dixon) in the early eighties recounted meeting Quincy Jones when he was being shown around the lab.

https://youtu.be/q3cwZaofB68?t=1236

Wow! I too would like to know more about his involvement with computing. Anyone have any pointers?

I'm just starting digging but here's some to start

- https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/973801.973815

He was also among a handful of people invited to contribute to a book tributing Alan Kay on his 70th birthday.

https://users.cs.duke.edu/~rodger/articles/AlanKay70thpoints...

His segment is a fantastic read, thanks for sharing.

I'd never heard this! Would also love to learn more, wow. Agree that he was a legend, musically speaking.

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