Seattle Times:
Quincy Jones delivered the festival’s keynote address at 2 p.m. Thursday. The Garfield High graduate’s resume is perhaps the most impressive in the entire entertainment industry: he arranged Sinatra’s big-band recordings; produced “Thriller,” still the top-selling record of all time; produced “The Color Purple,” essentially discovering Oprah Winfrey and Whoopi Goldberg in the process; and produced “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” He counted Ray Charles among his earliest friends and during the talk, referred to Willie Nelson as his “homie” and Michael Caine as his “celestial brother.” He spoke for over two hours, describing a career that’s spanned 60 years. And even with all the name dropping, Jones never came off as self-aggrandizing. To close the address, he asked the audience to hold hands and repeat a litany of affirmations that, if spoken by a lesser figure, would’ve sounded trite. Instead, the act left the room beaming with inspiration.