Last modified: Tuesday, May 4, 2010
IU Jacobs School of Music offers Q&A with David Baker and Quincy Jones
Editor's note: The Q&A session with Quincy Jones and David Baker today at 6 p.m. in the Musical Arts Center will be live-streamed on the Web at https://music.indiana.edu. The session will be filmed by the Department of Recording Arts in the IU Jacobs School of Music.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 4, 2010
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music will offer a rare opportunity to talk with two music legends Thursday, May 6, at 6 p.m. in the Musical Arts Center.
David N. Baker, distinguished professor and chair of the Department of Jazz Studies, will be joined by his long-time friend Quincy Jones -- legendary composer and arranger, record and television producer, magazine publisher and trumpeter known to many simply as "Q" -- in an informal question and answer session. The event is free and open to the public; no tickets are required. Doors for the event will open at 5:30 p.m.
Jones is being presented with an honorary Doctor of Music degree by IU at its 2010 undergraduate commencement ceremonies, May 8, in Bloomington. The ceremonies will be conducted in two sessions, one at 10 a.m. and one at 3 p.m., in Assembly Hall.
The all-time most nominated Grammy Award artist, Jones will speak at both sessions, addressing graduates along with IU President Michael McRobbie and a student speaker.
Jones has earned nearly 80 Grammy nominations and has received the statuette 27 times, including the Grammy Legend Award in 1991. The first African-American to be nominated for an Academy Award in the "Best Original Song" category, he has composed 33 major motion picture scores. He also has been awarded an Emmy, seven Oscar nominations and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
To many, Jones is perhaps best known for his work as a musical producer, including on the bestselling album of all time, Michael Jackson's Thriller, and the 1985 charity song "We Are The World," which recently was re-recorded to aid victims of the earthquake in Haiti.
Baker, also conductor and artistic director of the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra and a music legend in his own right, first got to know Jones as a member of his bands in the early 1960s, and they remain very close friends.
Baker has received numerous awards, including the National Association of Jazz Educators Hall of Fame Award, President's Award for Distinguished Teaching from Indiana University, the Arts Midwest Jazz Masters Award, the Governor's Arts Award of the State of Indiana, the Indiana Historical Society's Living Legend Award, the James Smithson Medal from the Smithsonian Institution, the American Jazz Masters Award from the National Endowment for the Arts and an Emmy Award for his musical score for the PBS documentary For Gold and Glory. He has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and the Grammy Award.
In 2007, Baker was honored by The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts with its Living Jazz Legend Award. He has received honorary doctorates from Wabash College, Oberlin College and the New England Conservatory of Music.
