A unique look at the legendary musician, arranger, composer and producer offers a collage of memories, sounds and intimate interviews with musical greats in a rousing showcase.A unique look at the legendary musician, arranger, composer and producer offers a collage of memories, sounds and intimate interviews with musical greats in a rousing showcase.A unique look at the legendary musician, arranger, composer and producer offers a collage of memories, sounds and intimate interviews with musical greats in a rousing showcase.
- Awards
- 1 nomination
Alvin Chea
- Self
- (as Take 6)
Cedric Dent
- Self
- (as Take 6)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- Trivia'Michael Jackson' refused to be lit for his interview so it is conducted in the dark.
Featured review
Incisive portrait documentary
My review was written in August 1990 after watching the film at a Midtown Manhattan screening room.
Warner Brothers continues its recent preeminence among the majors in the music documentary field with "Listen Up" (subtitled "The Lives of Quincy Jones"), an informative and invigorating portrait of an unusual American success story.
Pic going the film fest route before opening domestically in the fall. Like "Imagine" and "Straight No Chaser", its primary audience will be found in ancillary markets.
Filmmakers Courtney Sale Ross and Ellen Weissbrod adapt a kaleidoscopic editing approach that is disconcerting at first but (aided by the exciting underscore) eventually makes sense. It dovetails with their subject and prime interviewee Jones' statement late in the film that a biographical question raises a host of associations, "like 17 tributaries of a river".
Basic facts about Jones' singular life are imparted: his traumatic childhood; the big break of joining Lionel Hampton's touring big band while still a teen; his being hired at Mercury Records and producing his first pop hits for Lesley Gore there. He arranged music for Count Basie and Frank Sinatra; scored over 30 motion pictures; co-produced Michael Jackson's breakthrough albums, including "Thriller"; and supervised such ambitious projects as "We Are the World".
Through dozens of interviews and archive footage, a complex individual emerges. As is common with portrait films, there's little critical material, but Jones' flaw of being a workaholic is illuminated by perceptive comments from his daughter, jolie. His three marriages, last to actress Peggy Lipton, ended in divorce. And his nearly nonstop career fixation was sidelined only momentarily by an aneurysm.
Celebrity interviewees ranging from Steven Spielberg and Frank Sinatra to rappers like Ice-T and Big Daddy Kane offer convincing testimony to Jones' creative contributions and ability to inspire performers. Putting his career in context are no-nonsense comments from Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie, as well as mentors Lionel Hampton and Billy Eckstine, whose collective oral history complements that of WB's "Straight No Chaser" docu on Thelonious Monk.
Though many subjects, particularly Ella Fitzgerald, are reticent, film accurately zeroes in on the racism that confronts black artists in America. Most telling are anecdotes by Gillespie, Jones himself and Kane that counterpoint the traditional horror stories of decades past with very recent discriminatory incidents.
On a lighter note, the filmmakers' frenetic editing technique cutely matches and contrasts comments on Jones' trumpet playing ability from folks like Eckstine and Davis.
His contributions o fil ae attested to by interviews with Oprah Winfrey (hired by Jones for "The Color Purple"), as well as Sidney Lumet and Richard Brooks, who cite the fresh approach of Jones' scores for their films, such as "The Pawnbroker" and "In Cold Blood" (demonstrated by film clips and sound excerpts). Musical high points of the film include performances by greats like Fitzgerald, the late Sarah Vaughan and youngsters Sideah Garrett and Tevin Campbell in the studio for Jones' "Back on the Block".
Though there are extensive identifying end credits, the filmmakers take the novel approach of avoiding superimposed titles by having each interviewee announce his own name. This leads to amusing results, especially for Ray Charles and Frank Sinatra. Michael Jackson is interviewed, but refuses to be photographed.
Tech credits are good, with okay transfer to film of videotaped material by Image Transform lab.
Warner Brothers continues its recent preeminence among the majors in the music documentary field with "Listen Up" (subtitled "The Lives of Quincy Jones"), an informative and invigorating portrait of an unusual American success story.
Pic going the film fest route before opening domestically in the fall. Like "Imagine" and "Straight No Chaser", its primary audience will be found in ancillary markets.
Filmmakers Courtney Sale Ross and Ellen Weissbrod adapt a kaleidoscopic editing approach that is disconcerting at first but (aided by the exciting underscore) eventually makes sense. It dovetails with their subject and prime interviewee Jones' statement late in the film that a biographical question raises a host of associations, "like 17 tributaries of a river".
Basic facts about Jones' singular life are imparted: his traumatic childhood; the big break of joining Lionel Hampton's touring big band while still a teen; his being hired at Mercury Records and producing his first pop hits for Lesley Gore there. He arranged music for Count Basie and Frank Sinatra; scored over 30 motion pictures; co-produced Michael Jackson's breakthrough albums, including "Thriller"; and supervised such ambitious projects as "We Are the World".
Through dozens of interviews and archive footage, a complex individual emerges. As is common with portrait films, there's little critical material, but Jones' flaw of being a workaholic is illuminated by perceptive comments from his daughter, jolie. His three marriages, last to actress Peggy Lipton, ended in divorce. And his nearly nonstop career fixation was sidelined only momentarily by an aneurysm.
Celebrity interviewees ranging from Steven Spielberg and Frank Sinatra to rappers like Ice-T and Big Daddy Kane offer convincing testimony to Jones' creative contributions and ability to inspire performers. Putting his career in context are no-nonsense comments from Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie, as well as mentors Lionel Hampton and Billy Eckstine, whose collective oral history complements that of WB's "Straight No Chaser" docu on Thelonious Monk.
Though many subjects, particularly Ella Fitzgerald, are reticent, film accurately zeroes in on the racism that confronts black artists in America. Most telling are anecdotes by Gillespie, Jones himself and Kane that counterpoint the traditional horror stories of decades past with very recent discriminatory incidents.
On a lighter note, the filmmakers' frenetic editing technique cutely matches and contrasts comments on Jones' trumpet playing ability from folks like Eckstine and Davis.
His contributions o fil ae attested to by interviews with Oprah Winfrey (hired by Jones for "The Color Purple"), as well as Sidney Lumet and Richard Brooks, who cite the fresh approach of Jones' scores for their films, such as "The Pawnbroker" and "In Cold Blood" (demonstrated by film clips and sound excerpts). Musical high points of the film include performances by greats like Fitzgerald, the late Sarah Vaughan and youngsters Sideah Garrett and Tevin Campbell in the studio for Jones' "Back on the Block".
Though there are extensive identifying end credits, the filmmakers take the novel approach of avoiding superimposed titles by having each interviewee announce his own name. This leads to amusing results, especially for Ray Charles and Frank Sinatra. Michael Jackson is interviewed, but refuses to be photographed.
Tech credits are good, with okay transfer to film of videotaped material by Image Transform lab.
helpful•00
- lor_
- May 28, 2023
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Listen Up. The Lives of Quincy Jones
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $776,699
- Gross worldwide
- $776,699
- Runtime1 hour 55 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.66 : 1
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Top Gap
By what name was Listen Up: The Lives of Quincy Jones (1990) officially released in Canada in English?
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