Quincy Jones: The soul of perfect harmony
Quincy Jones，born in 1933, is an internationally renowned American-born composer, record producer, film composer and trumpeter. He is perhaps the best known for producing the album Thriller by Michael Jackson and also the famous charity single We Are the World. Quincy Jones has won 27 Grammy Awards.
With the theme “A Better City, A Better Life,” what better city in Asia to host the 2010 World Expo than the “Oriental Pearl” that is Shanghai? A city whose history of commerce and cultural exchange dates back to the mid-19th century when Shanghai reigned as the trade center between East and West.
As it did almost a century-and a half ago, Shanghai will once again open its arms to the world as it invites tens of millions of global citizens from more than 209 countries to experience the rich cultural history that envelops Shanghai and the forward-thinking industries and innovations that have made it one of the most rapidly developing centers of commerce in the world．
During the last 60 years, I’ve had the good fortune to travel all over the world. After 45 years of going to Hong Kong, it wasn’t until 2006 that I had the opportunity to visit the mainland and Shanghai for the first time. I have enthusiastically returned there many times since.
Feeling and experiencing this magnificent city and its culture have inspired and enriched me beyond my wildest imagination, and I was impressed by the wide-ranging diversity of viewpoints and expression, as well seeing a great country becoming more open to the world.
I was honored and humbled that those initial visits resulted in my collaborating with the producers of the Special Olympics World Summer Games in Shanghai in 2007, serving with the great director Ang Lee as a culture and arts consultant to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, and being appointed to the jury of the First National Digital Audio Production Competition of the renowned Shanghai Conservatory of Music last year. I have formed what I know will be lifelong friendships with artists and entrepreneurs, such as the beautiful light that is my baby sister Yue-Sai Kan, Lui Changli (and his daughter whom I nicknamed “Two Quarters”), Victor and Irene Chu, Maryma, my partners William and Lulu Du, and many others.
From the time that I first traveled abroad as a 19 year-old trumpeter with Lionel Hampton in 1951 to being the music director, arranger and trumpeter for Dizzy Gillespie’s State Department Tour in 1956 – the first United States sponsored goodwill tour – to the unifying power of We Are The World in 1985 and as a part of the Jubilee 2000 delegation to the Vatican on behalf of Third World debt relief with Bono and Bob Geldof in 1999, I have witnessed first-hand the transformational effects of the arts, especially music, to transcend geographic and cultural boundaries.
On that first trip to Europe so many years ago with Hamp, a great saxophone player named Ben Webster said to me, “Youngblood, when traveling in foreign countries if you really want to get to know the people, eat the food that they eat, listen to the music that they listen to, and learn 30-40 words in the language that they speak.” It was some of the best advice that I’ve ever gotten and to this day I have eagerly embraced the food, music and language of every country on the planet, and because of it, I feel at home wherever I travel in the world.
As an artist, I know that the collective creativity, the most powerful creativity on earth, can inspire people to come together and shine a light on something other than themselves. The creative expressions of artists all over the world help build bridges between cultures, giving us a better and more peaceful understanding and appreciation of each other.
I have long held that you have to know where you come from to know where you are going, and there may be no city more representative of this belief than Shanghai. Sitting at the mouth of the mighty Yangtze River, which winds into the heart of the mainland, Shanghai is a city that sings with a perfect harmonic bliss, blending the soul of man and nature past, present and future. That is why it was an honor for me to collaborate with the great Tan Dun in composing the Shanghai Expo’s 2010 theme song.
With the diversity of cultural influences embedded in Shanghai’s history, it is the perfect backdrop to host this year’s Expo and celebrate the dawn of global collaboration for the betterment of mankind at this turn of the 21st century.
From the ancient city of Zhujiajiao and the tranquility of the Yuyuan Gardens to the multitude of culinary choices and shopping of Nanking Road and the magnificent skyline view from the financial pulse that is the Bund, there is no doubt that the visitors of the 2010 World Expo will be forever moved and inspired by their time in this uniquely spectacular city.
I guess by now you can see that I feel close to and deeply love the “Oriental Pearl.”
