A Queen gave an Oscar tribute match for a king.
That’s what occurred on the 97th Academy Awards on the Dolby Theatre on Sunday night time when Queen Latifah gave a salute to film music icon Quincy Jones, who died at 91 from pancreatic most cancers final November.
However there have been much more queens concerned earlier than Latifah perfromed a rousing rendition of “Ease on Down the Road” from “The Wiz,” which Jones introduced from the stage to the display in 1978.
Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey — who each obtained massive breakthroughs in 1985’s “The Color Purple” due to Jones — have been reunited to honor their mentor.
“Quincy was love lived out loud in human form,” mentioned Winfrey. “And he poured that love into others and into his work.”
“So tonight we honor the true American legend whose music and movies continue to inspire us all,” added Goldberg.
Latifah and Jones return to when the rapper-singer and Oscar-nominated actress appeared on his 1995 album “Q’s Jook Joint.” And Latifah performed the Wiz herself in “The Wiz Live!” on NBC in 2015.
In addition to being a legendary producer of everybody from Frank Sinatra and Lesley Gore to Michael Jackson and Donna Summer time, Jones was a large within the movie world, scoring such basic films as “The Pawnbroker” (1965), “In the Heat of the Night”(1967), “In Cold Blood” (1967), “The Italian Job” (1969) and “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice” (1969). He additionally introduced the music of “The Wiz” from stage to display in 1978 and scored 1985’s “The Color Purple,” for which he additionally served as a producer.
Jones was the primary African-American to be nominated for the Finest Authentic Track Oscar — for “The Eyes of Love” from 1967’s “Banning” — and he was nominated for an Academy Award six different occasions.
Then in 1971, Jones turned the primary African-American to be the music director and conductor of the Oscars.
And in 1995, he was celebrated with the academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
Michael Bearden, first-time music director of the Academy Awards, credited Jones for paving the best way for him.
“Quincy is really the blueprint of what I’ve been able to do my entire career, and I’ve been really lucky to have … worked with him over the years.,” he mentioned throughout a Zoom press convention final week.
Simply two weeks after his dying, he acquired an honorary Oscar on the Governors Awards in Hollywood. His daughter, actress Rashida Jones, delivered a speech that her dad had been engaged on whereas accepting the award in his honor.
“As a teenager growing up in Seattle, I would sit for hours in the theater and dream about composing for films,” she learn.
The speech then mirrored on Jones’ groundbreaking journey in movie: “When I was a young film composer, you didn’t even see faces of color working in the studio commissaries. I am so, so proud of the fact that my name and contributions can be included in that evolution.”
Jones additionally acquired a particular tribute ultimately month’s Grammys as a winner of 28. Will Smith, Cynthia Erivo, Herbie Hancock, Janelle Monáe, Jacob Collier and Lainey Wilson have been amongst these to salute the late star on music’s largest night time.
