Reuters
A statue of U.S. music producer Quincy Jones [Source: Reuters]
A friend of Quincy Jones, the titan of music whose death was announced, recalled how the all-night jam sessions they used to have during the Montreux Jazz Festival crackled with the electricity between the musicians present.
After the official gigs on the shores of Lake Geneva had ended, musicians would accompany Jones up the mountainside to the chalet of festival founder Charles Nobs and his partner Thierry Amsallem to keep playing.
A bronze statue of Jones, his arms spread open to conduct an imaginary crowd of musicians, stands in Montreux to honour him and his influence on music.
Amsallem, who is the owner of Montreux Sounds and founder of the Claude Nobs Foundation, said Jones was determined to break out from what he described as a jazz “shoe box” designated for Black musicians.
He credits Jones with the idea of bringing jazz trumpeter Miles Davis to the Montreux festival in 1991 just months before the latter’s death. The result was a performance, with Jones as conductor, which won them a Grammy Award.
