Canadian musicians recall industry titan Quincy Jones as mentor, friend, family

TORONTO – Oscar Peterson’s youngest daughter remembers “laughter and joy” when her late father spent time with music giant Quincy Jones.
Céline Peterson says one of her strongest childhood memories is watching the two music legends at a reception after her father performed at the Hollywood Bowl more than 20 years ago.
Peterson is among the many Canadians speaking about the global impact of the multi-faceted Jones, who died Sunday after a staggering career that shaped so much of the entertainment industry.
Montreal jazz singer Nikki Yanofsky, who Jones mentored early in her career, said in a statement that “his wisdom, warmth, and kindness” changed her life, while musician Andrew Craig, who directed a musical tribute to Jones in Toronto in 2001, remembers him as down-to-earth and gracious.
Lou Robinson, better known as King Lou from Dream Warriors, says Jones remained a friend long after the hip-hop group scored a hit with “My Definition of a Boombastic Jazz Style,” which sampled Jones’ 1962 instrumental, “Soul Bossa Nova.”
Tributes to the creative genius have been pouring in from around the globe, many from Canada where friends described a man who felt like family despite his public persona as an industry titan.
“When dad passed away, Quincy was one of the first people who made it clear that he wanted to come to Toronto to celebrate him at his public memorial, which he did,” Peterson said Monday.
“He had a lot to share about his friendship with dad over the years. A lot about that time was a blur, but it was very, very clear to me how important they were to one another.”
When Jones would visit Canada to attend an event or promote a project, friend Michael Williams knew to prepare for a long night out. The former MuchMusic VJ says he never got home before 7 a.m. whenever Jones was in town, with dinners and conversation stretching long into the wee hours.
Williams said Jones “became an honoured friend” after Canadian composer and producer David Foster introduced them at the Juno Awards one year, and he eventually functioned as a media handler and local fixer – even preparing some home cooking to hand deliver to Jones’ hotel room.
“He wanted soul food,” Williams remembers of one visit.
“If you’re Black and you’re out of your environment in a different country, you want to know: Where can I get a haircut? Where can I get some food? And what’s going on? And where is it safe to be?”
One time, he asked Jones who he’d like to meet.
“Well, he says, ‘I want to meet the Dream Warriors, because they made me a lot of money, you know,’” said Williams.
Robinson said Jones was an immediate fan of “My Definition” when they approached him for permission to use the sample, recognizing it “as a turning point and merging of the generation gap between jazz and hip-hop.” Robinson wasn’t trying for such lofty aspirations, but soon saw that success of the song broadened the group’s reach to new audiences.
Robinson said he’d usually meet Jones at his hotel when he came to town, and they’d talk about anything and everything: food, climate change, race and more. Although he gleaned life lessons from those talks, Jones never came across as the elder passing down instruction.
“It becomes a back-and-forth sharing thing…. It’s like family hanging out,” said Robinson. “But if you were a fly on the wall, you would hear a lot of tidbits that you might be able to take away with you.”
Toronto-based jazz pianist Robi Botos credited Jones with teaching him how to navigate an evolving music industry at a key point in his burgeoning career, noting the versatile Jones inspired him to push beyond his jazz background.
“I grew up dreaming to score for music and film, as well. I had other things in my mind, but it’s very easy to get stuck in one box in the music industry,” Botos, jazz artist-in-residence at the Royal Conservatory of Music, said Tuesday.
“It’s hard to stand up for what you are when you know that you might not fit. These were just very important things for me to consider and think about.”
The two met in 2004 when Botos won a piano competition at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. The prize came with the opportunity to open for Peterson, facilitated by Jones, and from then on they would cross paths several times.
“It’s an amazing thing when a young artist gets support from someone like that. I mean, he was literally behind everything I grew up on music wise.”
Craig recalled meeting Jones in 2001 when he led a musical tribute that served as a retrospective of Jones’ entire career to date, and again in 2008 when they both attended a tribute to virtuoso pianist Oscar Peterson.
“Times with Quincy were some of the times in my life when I felt the most alive,” said Craig.
“To be in a space with him, you could feel what it was that set him apart from other beings. It wasn’t that he had some huge, magnanimous ego. He knew who he was, he knew what he had accomplished in life but he maintained humility throughout all of that. But he had a life force that was unlike any other that I’ve experienced.”
Craig said it was hard to overstate Jones’ wide-ranging impact.
“I don’t think you could find a single musician in Canada who wouldn’t speak in glowing terms about the music that Quincy put his hands on and how much it influenced their development,” he said.
“Quincy showed us what was possible in ways that almost no one else did.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.