What I really liked about Prince for the last 15 - 20 years of his life was, if you asked him who his favorite guitarist/vocalist/what-have-you was, he almost always mentioned someone in his band.

Now, Prince knew that Sonny T. wasn't the best guitarist in the land, but he played what Prince liked and Prince supported him. I saw him do that with more than a few of his other bandmates, too.

Maybe that is what Quincy Jones really meant.

I am not understanding the connection to Q here. Could you elaborate?

Prince did compliment the folks who played for him a lot. (Oddly, some of them still thought they weren't thanked enough or were insecure about what he thought about them. Musicians must be insecure..its not like Prince is going to hire you and keep you around for more than a couple weeks, if he thought you were shit) But he also called MJ a genius, complimented BEyonce's singing voice, called Kendrick Lamarr;s album the truth, showed love towards Public Enemy, said the Rolling Stones were cool, said David Bowie was a nice guy, loved on James Brown, complimented Adele, showed love toward Amy Winehouse (before he worked with her), complimented Joni Mitchell, said he loved Santana, said he loved Fleetwood Mac, even ocassionally complimented Madonna, wrote a complimentary note to SUsanna Vega for her song Luka.

RodeoSchro said:

What I really liked about Prince for the last 15 - 20 years of his life was, if you asked him who his favorite guitarist/vocalist/what-have-you was, he almost always mentioned someone in his band.

Now, Prince knew that Sonny T. wasn't the best guitarist in the land, but he played what Prince liked and Prince supported him. I saw him do that with more than a few of his other bandmates, too.

Maybe that is what Quincy Jones really meant.

CatB said:

rdhull said:

he only fucked white girls

That doesn't explain what "extremely caucasian" is.

@SkipperLove: Could you elaborate, please?

I thought thats what the poster was getting at.

Kares said:

Some of you guys are truly delusional and childish.

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For the record: I am not a fan of Q but a fan of Prince. But attacking Quincy Jones on a personal level (and talking about his preference in women – really?...) says far more about you than about him.
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As I said before: maybe try understanding what he means before attacking him for hurting your deaf/dumb/blind admiration of Prince. Q is NOT dissing Prince. (Nor do I of course.) Q did not say that "Prince could only play a few chords", that's just something you're trying to put into his mouth. Quite clearly, what he meant on "he knows some chords" is that Prince's piano playing (and btw, his guitar playing too) was based on learning chords and using licks and runs that were painstakingly rehearsed to perfection to connect and restructure those chords. His playing (on either guitar or piano) was not based on a deep understanding of musical theory and different scales that would've opened a whole universe of musical possibilities for him. His knowledge of music in that sense was quite limited. (Again: limited in comparison to the true giants, not to your average rock+pop players.)
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Prince's strengths as a pianist or guitarist (and bassist) came from his fiercely competitive nature and amazing dedication to achieving his dream from a very early age. He practiced his butt off "while everyone else was down the street". He practiced religiously, like it was mantra for him. He has learned all the fancy chords and licks from the records he listened to, mainly soul, funk, rock, jazz fusion and pop, possibly gospel too. I love these genres too but these are only some small fragments the whole music universe. Prince has perfected his rehearsed licks and runs to such an incredibly high level that combined with his natural, soulful feel and passion, his playing became truly inspired and even when he played rehearsed licks he managed to sound like improvisation to the untrained ears. (He could improvise, but in his improvisations he relied on rehearsed licks too.)

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Again: Prince was a truly one-of-a-kind, all-around musical genius and I have the greatest admiration for him. (As for Q: I respect his depths of knowledge in music and for what he's done in music, but I've never been a true fan of his production style, it's far too perfect to my ears and often soundling like a Unicef Gala, borderline kitsch.)
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Prince was unique and amazing in so many different areas, as a songwriter, producer, lyricist, performer, singer etc. as well as being a truly beautiful human being with a loving heart and compassion towards others. The list could go on. In my eyes these already make him one of the greatests of mankind. I see absolutely no reason to add false credits to his name, such as comparing his piano skills to Hancock's, as that is silly and ignorant.

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Quincy has known and worked with a huge array of truly amazing musicians, true giants. When he's talking about pianists, he's thinking of Art Tatum, Arthur Rubinstein, Oscar Peterson, Sviatoslav Richter, McCoy Tyner, Glenn Gould, Bill Evans. He's not even thinking of his friend, Ray Charles! Ray Charles, too, was a truly amazing genius of course, but even he wasn't quite up there with these giants as a pianist. So please try to put what Q says in this perspective. He wasn't comparing Prince's piano playing to some Richard Claydermann or Billy Joel...
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[Edited 7/31/18 6:25am]

Ok, everybody apologize to Quincy!

Another day in the Org, another thing to be offended with. I agree with Quincy Jones, Prince was technically a limited pianist, but so what? All the more reason why I love his playing, there was much emphasis on emotional impact than precise technicality, it was human and he made the most out of the least. Only thing I would disagree with Quincy is the comparative argument, Herbie Hancock wouldn't wanna be compared to Monk or Duke Ellington. In the same vein as I'm sure Quincy wouldn't wanna be compared to his old boss, Lionel Hampton or Count Basie.

Prince is the Petty Champ for having this footage cut with Quincy's comments, and releasing it to media outlets.

Hamad said:

ONCE AGAIN NO ONE ON THIS THREAD STATED THAT PRINCE WAS AN UNLIMITED PIANO PLAYER. Also, quincy didnt say that PRince was "technically a limited pianist"..that would have been too nice.

Hamad said:

Another day in the Org, another thing to be offended with. I agree with Quincy Jones, Prince was technically a limited pianist, but so what? All the more reason why I love his playing, there was much emphasis on emotional impact than precise technicality, it was human and he made the most out of the least. Only thing I would disagree with Quincy is the comparative argument, Herbie Hancock wouldn't wanna be compared to Monk or Duke Ellington. In the same vein as I'm sure Quincy wouldn't wanna be compared to his old boss, Lionel Hampton or Count Basie.

^ I still feel offended.


Quincy J sounds like an asshole.. not that respectful at all...

One could wonder WHY?

SkipperLove said:

ONCE AGAIN NO ONE ON THIS THREAD STATED THAT PRINCE WAS AN UNLIMITED PIANO PLAYER. Also, quincy didnt say that PRince was "technically a limited pianist"..that would have been too nice.

Hamad said:

Another day in the Org, another thing to be offended with. I agree with Quincy Jones, Prince was technically a limited pianist, but so what? All the more reason why I love his playing, there was much emphasis on emotional impact than precise technicality, it was human and he made the most out of the least. Only thing I would disagree with Quincy is the comparative argument, Herbie Hancock wouldn't wanna be compared to Monk or Duke Ellington. In the same vein as I'm sure Quincy wouldn't wanna be compared to his old boss, Lionel Hampton or Count Basie.

So what seems to be the issue?

Hamad said:

So what seems to be the issue?

SchlomoThaHomo said:

Quincy was salty as hell. I think he was making the salt at that time lol.

[Edited 8/1/18 11:22am]