Quincy Jones Loves Seattle

SEATTLE (AP) - Although Quincy Jones lives in Los Angeles, the music producer is happy to sing the praises of Seattle.
"Seattle in the 1940s was like New Orleans,'' Jones told the Seattle Post-Intellgencer in Friday's editions. "Let the good times roll. Every club was open 24-seven.''
And the city is "still happening,'' he said, citing Paul Allen, a billionaire co-founder of Microsoft Corp., based in Seattle. "He's one of the godfathers of the information age, and he plays the blues.''

Jones, who moved here when he was 14, is the featured artist in the Experience Music Project's Innovators Series this year. Late 1960s guitar legend Jimi Hendrix, a Seattle native, was the initial honoree last year.

In the early days, the underage Jones used a cigarette and a suit to slip into the clubs, where he was taken under the wing of musicians passing through town - Count Basie and Ray Charles among them. Trumpeter Clark Terry taught him to read music and write charts in the mornings before school.

Jones, 68, is one of the top film-score writers in the business, with credits that include "The Pawnbroker'' in 1965 through "The Color Purple'' in 1985. His TV scores range from "Ironside'' to "Roots'' to "The Oprah Winfrey Show.''