Quincy

Quincy (2018) is a feature documentary about the life of Quincy Jones — available to watch online on iFILM. It was made by his daughter Rashida Jones and co-director Alan Hicks, which makes it something other than a standard music biography: this is family access, built from the kind of footage and conversations that wouldn't happen in front of a stranger's camera.

Jones came up in the 1950s as a jazz arranger and conductor, working alongside Count Basie and Frank Sinatra before pivoting to pop and film. He went on to produce Michael Jackson's Off the Wall, Thriller, and Bad — three records that rewired what pop music could sound like — and spent four decades writing scores for Hollywood. Tom Hanks, Oprah Winfrey, Will Smith, Kendrick Lamar, Dr. Dre, Beyoncé, and Jay-Z all appear to speak about his influence. The list alone maps how many genres and generations his work crossed.

Rashida doesn't produce a celebration with the rough edges smoothed out. Six strokes, a childhood in the Chicago projects, eight children across different relationships, and the cost of building everything he built — it's all in the film. At 124 minutes, it earns its running time. Stream Quincy (2018) online on iFILM.