March 29, 2007

By By Susan Butler, N.Y.

Quincy Jones is adding his special touch to a production music library. The composer for films like "In Cold Blood" and "The Color Purple" is producing a heritage black music series for Extreme Music to license for film, television and commercial use.

The first three CDs in the Q-Series -- jazz, gospel and hip hop music -- should be available before summer.

Jones says he produced the jazz album like any other album he's produced over the last 50 years, picking the best songs and working with top composers and musicians like Kenny Werner and Tom Scott. For the hip-hop album, Jones reached out to his son, hip-hop producer QD3. "He referred me to some young guys -- JAM Music -- who were absolutely exceptional and who helped us put together some really catchy grooves."

Making music for a production house seems like an unusual gig for someone of Jones' caliber, but Jones says he loves to support new ways of getting music out to people.

"I was blown away by Extreme as a company," says Jones, "and this is representative of the paradigm shift we are currently seeing in music. For those of us who still love to make music in the age of P2P, this is a new and exciting way to get music out."

Russell Emanuel, co-CEO of Extreme with Dolph Taylor, says that Jones will produce nine CDs over the next few years. Extreme is a wholly owned unit of
Viacom's Famous Music Publishing.

Read the exclusive Q&A with Quincy Jones about this project.

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