Quincy Jones Playing at the East Madison YMCA, Seattle, WA, 1947

“The first job we ever played was at the YMCA on 23rd and Madison, in 1947. We got seven dollars apiece.” - Quincy Jones (b. 1933)

This photograph captures the first performance of the Charlie Taylor Band, including a young Quincy Jones. The band was founded by Jones’ friend, and fellow high school student, Charlie Taylor (b. unknown). After being approached by Robert A. “Bumps” Blackwell (1918-1985), the band changed their name to the Bumps Blackwell Junior Band in return for Blackwell’s promotion and management.

Although he was born in Chicago, Illinois, it is easy to see that Jones was strongly influenced by the Seattle, Washington music scene after moving to Bremerton, Washington with his family at age ten. Before the age of twelve, Jones experimented with French horn, piano, drums, cymbals, violin, tuba, baritone horn, E flat alto horn, and trombone. He eventually settled on trumpet, although his passion for arranging music outweighed any single-minded focus on one instrument. Jones was mostly self-taught although he received sporadic lessons from local figures including Eddie Lewis (b. unknown) and Frank Waldron (1890-1955). As a high schooler, now living in Seattle, Jones joined the Bumps Blackwell Junior Band which played venues around the Seattle area and even backed artists such as Billie Holiday (1915-1959) and Nat King Cole (1919-1965). Around this time, Jones also met Ray Charles (1930-2004) who was only two years his senior but already living on his own and performing at local Jazz rooms. The two young men immediately connected over their love for music, with Charles offering Jones some instruction on writing music; thus began a life-long friendship. In 1951, Jones spent one semester studying at Seattle University on a music scholarship before leaving for the Berklee School of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, also on scholarship. His musical career began in earnest when he left his studies to tour with Lionel Hampton (1908-2002) as a trumpeter, arranger and pianist. Across his long career, Jones has won 28 Grammy Awards, with 80 nominations, worked with artists including Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, Dinah Washington, Dizzy Gillespie, and Donna Summer, produced film scores and soundtracks for films including The Color Purple, and The Wiz, as well as appeared in films such as Fantasia 2000 and Austin Powers.