Published: February 25, 2005
TV ONE ON ONE FEATURES LEGENDARY PRODUCER AND ENTREPRENEUR QUINCY JONES IN AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW PREMIERING SUNDAY, NOV. 27
 Jones talks with host Cathy Hughes about co-producing the musical adaptation of The Color Purple, scoring a new movie with Fifty Cent, his legendary career and life, and music from swing to jazz and rap to hip hop |
Silver Spring, MD - (BlackNews.com) - Entertainment industry impresario Quincy Jones reflects on his 50 years of performing, composing and producing, plus discusses his latest projects and much more in an exclusive interview with TV One on One host Cathy Hughes that premieres Sunday, Nov. 27 at 8 PM (ET). The special will repeat on Monday, Nov. 28 at noon and 2 AM and Saturday, Dec. 3 at 6 PM.
Now Jones is producing in yet another medium, helping to transform The Color Purple into a Broadway musical, twenty years after the motion pictures premiere. He also recently scored Fifty Cent's new film, Get Rich or Die Tryin.
Hughes and Jones discuss his multi-faceted career in music, television, motion pictures and as a record company executive and magazine founder, including not only his innumerable professional and personal triumphs but also what he considers failures.
Jones has won 27 Grammy awards, and is the all-time most nominated Grammy artist with a total of 79 Grammy nominations. In 1963, he started work on music for Sidney Lumet's The Pawnbroker and opened another door that had been closed to African Americans - the world of film scores. It was the first of his 33 major motion picture film scores, and led to Jones co-producing Steven Speilberg's 1985 adaptation of Alice Walker's The Color Purple, which won 11 Oscar nominations. He also was named a Kennedy Center Honoree in 2001 for his contributions to the country's cultural fabric.
Jones talks about a project close to his heart: the opening of the musical The Color Purple on Broadway in December, marking the 20th anniversary of the acclaimed motion picture and his debut as a film co-producer.
When Hughes asks about the difficulties in translating the energy of such a superb book and movie into a live space, he calls Walker's book a divine inspiration about sisterhood, and says the big challenge was to transfer the book, based on a series of letters, into a narrative for the screen.
Jones says the Broadway show and film are filled with what he describes as some of the most powerful women's roles ever.
Addressing why he has not scored a film since The Color Purple until the recently released Get Rich or Die Tryin, Jones tells Hughes hes been busy producing TV shows and working on other projects. He adds, "I wanted to wait for just the right one, [a film] that had the sensitivity to explore the whys and the whats [of] whats happened with the hip-hop generation." Jones says Fifty Cent and director Jim Sheridan are an amazing combination.
When Hughes asks Jones how he continues to break new ground in all areas of the entertainment business, Jones says, "I think there are cardinal rules for this business if you wanna stay a long time and that is every time you appreciate [or] approach your creativity, you do it with humility. Serious humility, sincere humility and accept your success with grace."
In a surprise visit that has become the hallmark of TV One on One, Jones is visited by James Ingram who serenades him with Just Once, the song that Jones heard Ingram sing on a demo, had him record and which launched Ingram's career as a world class vocalist.
Ingram recounts the story of how within five months of meeting Jones he went from being a musician a piano player - to a lead singer winning three Grammy awards. "Quincy knew I'd never [sung] onstage before in my life, and he had me open the Grammys," Ingram says. It became the first time in history that anyone ever won a Grammy without having an album released.
Launched in January 2004, TV One (www.tvoneonline.com) serves 23.2 million households, offering a broad range of lifestyle and entertainment-oriented original programming, classic series, movies, fashion and music designed to entertain, inform and inspire a diverse audience of adult African American viewers. TV Ones investors include Radio One [NASDAQ: ROIA and ROIAK; www.radio-one.com], the largest radio company that primarily targets African American and urban listeners; Comcast Corporation [NASDAQ: CMCSA and CMCSK; www.comcast.com], the leading cable television company in the country; The DirecTV Group; Constellation Ventures; Syndicated Communications; Pacesetter Capital Group; and Opportunity Capital Partners.
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