Quincy Jones was well established before he ever met MJ. To say that MJ made Quincy Jones is a rediculous statement. Off The Wall, Thriller, and Bad wouldn't have been the same without Quincy.
I agree with what you say. But I think it's a case of some fans on this site using the wrong words with them saying it's Michael who made Quincy Jones.
Your right that Quincy Jones was very well established before he met Michael. He'd worked with Frank Sinatra, composed music for classic films like 'The Italian Job starring Michael Caine, many other things well known to the public before he produced 'Off The Wall'.
What is actually true, is that if it wasn't for Michael, most of the general public wouldn't even know who Quincy Jones was and most other pop stars and bands wouldn't consider Quincy Jones anything to do with popular music. Quincy was a already a very successful and credible musician and producer, but was largely and invisible presence and irrelevant in the world of pop music, despite having produced a No.1 single 'It's My Party' in the early 1960's.
Michael and Quincy both took a huge risk working with each other. People around Quincy thought it was a risk to work with a then teen idol like Michael, who many told Quincy that Michael was as big as he was going to get, or past his peak. Michael on the other hand to hired Quincy, had to fight with his record company CBS/Epic (now Sony/Epic) to hire Quincy. Because they felt Quincy was just a jazz and movie soundtrack musician and producer and new nothing about pop music. The fact that Michael came from the world of pop and soul music, and Quincy came from a jazz and movie soundtrack background enabled them to create a very unique sound on the albums they made together. The collaboration of Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones, is very music like The Beatles and their producer George Martin, who like Quincy wasn't from a pop background.
I think people who don't know much about Michael's music or even recent fans who have grown up download music for free, and have never bought a CD with artwork and albums lyrics and credits, may possibly think Quincy Jones put the whole album together and Michael just sang the vocals. In early 2009 or so, some idiot called Huey (he's in his early 40's) from some crap band 'The Fun Lovin' Criminals' said when talking on some MTV show (which Thriller was voted the Greatest Album of All Time) that Quincy Jones put the whole album together, and Michael just came in and sang the vocals. There are some people who watched that, who will believe what he said. I've met people who are surprised Michael wrote, composed and arranged the majority of his most classic songs, and some are surprised he also co-produced the songs he write with Quincy.
This is really how the media spins things. Michael is always written about as an 'entertainer' who's creativity is on stage singing and dancing. Stars like Madonna, Alicia Keys, Beyonce and Lady Ga Ga are seen as songwriters and producers, just even someone like Alicia Keys hardly writes or producers any of her own songs without a huge team of songwriters (up to 5 per song) and producers. The media leave out that Michael was a songwriter, composer, arranger and producer, and technically very accomplished in the studio and didn't need a team to collaborate to create songs. Not enough has been written or said about Michael in the studio.
I would say Quincy Jones does get too much credit because when he talks about how he got all the musicians etc together, it can come across that the albums were his vision, because Off The Wall, Thriller and Bad were Michael's projects and Michael's vision. Michael had the final say what songs would be on the album etc. Their is no denying that Quincy Jones role in Michael's albums, is very important. Quincy did in many respects put huge parts of Off The Wall and Thriller together. He brought in a lot of musicians (so did Michael, ie Greg Philinganes), and song writers like the amazing Rod Temperton. What Quincy did on Michael's albums was pure genius, but it was Michael's songs that made those albums and gave them an edge.
Michael and Quincy made each other with their collaboration on those albums. Michael has always stated who greatful he was to Quincy and how much he learned from Quincy. What is missed is that Quincy does give Michael all the credit he deserves, when you listen to him on the extras on the Special Editions of Off The Wall, Thriller and Bad, when he talks about how much he loves Michael's songwriting and says "Michael is an amazing songwriter, amazing" etc. Quincy also did say in the 2007 edition of Ebony Magazine, how Michael always thanks Quincy for producing him, but say's it's should be him who should thank Michael.
My issue with Quincy is the personal stuff he said about Michael, and the fact he's not always consistent when talking about working with Michael.
