Profiles With Maggie LePique

Maggie spoke with Quincy Jones in early December 2008 about his book, The Complete Quincy Jones My Journey & Passions. We discussed some of his favorite musical collaborations including Frank Sinatra and Miles Davis and discuss the idea of mentorship and why it's so important to "pass it on" Quincy Delight Jones Jr. March 14, 1933 – November 3, 2024 was an American record producer, songwriter, composer, arranger, and film and television producer.. Over the course of his seven-decade career, he received many accolades including 28 Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Tony Award as well as nominations for seven Academy Awards and four Golden Globe Awards.
About the book: Everything you love about American popular culture is Quincy Jones. As an artist and impresario Quincy Jones has been the creative catalyst for over 60 years of American cultural phenomena orchestrating the sounds of Frank Sinatra, setting the ambiance for Steven Spielberg, cultivating the talent of Michael Jackson, and introducing to the world Oprah Winfrey and Will Smith - to name a few. The Complete Quincy Jones examines the diverse virtuosity of Quincy Jones, celebrating his prolific contribution to American art and culture. Comprised of personal interviews and recollections with Jones, this collection peers behind the veil of celebrity, with extraordinary access to his creative inspirations and labors. Through private notebooks, correspondence, and photographs Jones offers unprecedented introspection into the depths of his creativity and the histories of his ventures. From the volumes of his memorabilia, Jones emerges as a contemplative and dynamic maestro, thriving on intuition and ceaselessly pursuing the soul of his art.
Quincy Jones is an American record producer, conductor, arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. God Bless Quincy Jones, there will never be another you! 



Source: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Complete-Quincy-Jones/Quincy-Jones/9781933784670
Source: https://www.qwest.tv/
Source: https://www.arts.gov/honors/jazz/quincy-jones
Source: https://rockhall.com/inductees/quincy-jones/


Host Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990's and has worked for Pacifica station KPFK Radio in Los Angeles since 1994.

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Grandma’s Hands is a timeless, universal song originally featured on Bill Withers’ 1971 album, Just As I Am.
With soulful lyrics, the song captures the significant impact that Withers’ grandmother had on his life as a child.
Multiple award-winning artist R. Gregory Christie has brought the iconic song to life through vibrant illustrations, painting a tender portrait of Bill’s grandmother. Through the illustrations, readers are transported back in time to experience the comfort, security, and unconditional love that he found in his grandmother’s hands.
A heartwarming tribute to the enduring bond between grandmothers and their grandchildren.
Marcia Withers is the wife of the late music icon, singer/songwriter Bill Withers. She oversaw Bill’s career management and as head of Withers Entertainment and the Mattie Music Group in Los Angeles, she controls the family’s publishing companies, and its worldwide sub-publisher representatives. She has been instrumental in the placement of Bill’s songs in countless films, television programs and other media, and played a creative role in many of Bill’s recording compilations. She is the co-producer of The Essential Bill Withers and a tribute show at Carnegie Hall in 2015. Maggie & Marcia discuss the the illustrated book "Grandma's Hands" and her work managing Bill's Publishing Companies and so much more.
Bill Withers was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is known for such hit songs as "Ain't No Sunshine," "Lean on Me," "Just the Two of Us," "Lovely Day," and more. He has received numerous awards in his lifetime and won three GRAMMY Awards. In 2005, Withers was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and in 2015, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Source: https://grandmashandsbook.com/
Source: https://billwithers.com/
Source: https://mattiemusicgroup.com/
Source: https://say.org/

Host Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990's and has worked for Pacifica station KPFK Radio in Los Angeles since 1994.

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The sonically innovative harpist, Brandee Younger, is revolutionizing harp for the digital era. Over the past fifteen years, she has worked relentlessly to stretch boundaries and limitations for harpists.  In 2022, she made history by becoming the first Black woman to be nominated for a Grammy® Award for Best Instrumental Composition. That same year, she was also nominated for an NAACP Image Award and later, the winner of the 2024 NAACP Image Award in the category of Outstanding Jazz Album for her latest album Brand New Life.  Ever-expanding as an artist, she has worked with cultural icons including Common, Lauryn Hill, John Legend, Pharoah Sanders and Christian McBride.   Her original composition “Hortense” was featured in the Netflix Concert-Documentary, Beyoncé: Homecoming and in 2019, Brandee was selected to perform her original music as a featured performer for Quincy Jones and Steve McQueens’ “Soundtrack of America”.  Brandee is often noted for standing on the shoulders of the very women who ushered in the harp as a clear and distinct voice in jazz & popular styles - particularly Detroit natives Dorothy Ashby & Alice Coltrane.  Her new album, Brand New Life, builds on her already rich oeuvre, and cements the harp’s place in pop culture.  As the title of the album suggests, Brand New Life is about forging new paths–artistic, personal, political, and spiritual.  Younger's music is imbued with a sense of purpose and respect of legacy, creating a larger platform for the harp to reach newer and wider audiences than ever before.  In addition to teaching at Steinhardt, Younger holds leadership positions as a board member of The Coltrane Home and New Music USA.
Maggie speaks with Brandee at the 67 Monterey Jazz Festival about her band and her association with Alice Coltrane and  The Year of Alice.
“No harpist thus far has been more capable of combining all of the modern harp traditions — from Salzedo, through Dorothy Ashby, through Alice Coltrane — with such strength, grace and commitment.” -  The New York Times
Follow: @harpista

Source: https://brandeeyounger.com/
Source:https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/people/brandee-younger
Source: https://thecoltranehome.org/2024/03/16/let-the-year-of-alice-begin/

Host Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990's and has worked for Pacifica station KPFK Radio in Los Angeles since 1994.

Send us a text

Support the show

@profileswithmaggielepique
@maggielepique

Lila Downs is one of the most influential artists in Latin America. She has one of the most unique voices in the world and is known for her charismatic performances. His own compositions combine genres and rhythms as diverse as Mexican rancheras and corridos, boleros, jazz standards, hip-hop, cumbia and popular American music. Frequently her lyrics focus on justice, immigration and women’s problems.

She grew up in both Minnesota and Oaxaca, Mexico, her mother is from the Mixtec indigenous group and her father was Scottish-American. Lila sings in Spanish, English and several native American languages ​​such as Zapotec, Mixtec, Nahuatl, Mayan and Purepecha.

She has recorded duets with artists as diverse as Mercedes Sosa, Caetano Veloso, Juanes, Nora Jones, Juan Gabriel, Carla Morison, Natalia LaFourcade, Santana , The boss, Nina Pastori, Soledad, Diego La Cigala, Aida Cuevas, Toto La Momposina, and Bunbury. Chavela Vargas “named” Lila as her “successor.”

She has been invited to sing with symphonies such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony and the UNAM Symphony in Mexico, as well as with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. He has given concerts at Carnegie Hall, the Lincoln Center, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the Hollywood Bowl and the National Auditorium in Mexico City. She was invited by Barack Obama to sing in the White House, and acted in the Oscars for her participation in the film Frida. Lila has recorded nine studio albums.

She has been nominated for nine Grammy awards and has won six.
Maggie & Lila discuss her first appearance at the infamous Monterey Jazz Festival and her amazing performance + members of her current band. 

Source: https://www.liladowns.com/language/en/

Host Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990's and has worked for Pacifica station KPFK Radio in Los Angeles since 1994.

Send us a text

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Four-time Grammy Award winner Stanley Clarke is undoubtedly one of the most celebrated acoustic and electric bass players in the world. What’s more, he is equally gifted as a recording artist, performer, composer, conductor, arranger, producer and film score composer. A true pioneer in jazz and jazz-fusion, Clarke is particularly known for his ferocious bass dexterity and consummate musicality. Unquestionably, he has attained “living legend” status during his over 40-year career as a bass virtuoso. Part One of 67th Annual Monterey Jazz Festival Shorts
And inside look into the artist and the legendary Festival.
Stanley's new recording will be dropping soon, stay tuned!


Source: https://stanleyclarke.com/
Source: https://montereyjazzfestival.org

Host Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990's and has worked for Pacifica station KPFK Radio in Los Angeles since 1994.

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Ashley Kahn is a Grammy-winning author, educator, music journalist, and concert producer. His books include A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane’s Signature Album and Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece. He teaches at New York University’s Clive Davis Institute for Recorded Music.
One of 67th Annual Monterey Jazz Festival Shorts
And inside look into the legendary Festival and what talks Ashley hosted this year including, Conversation: Songs for My Father — Soundtracks and Jazz with Kyle Eastwood & Ashley Kahn,  Conversation: Crescendo in Blue — Vinyl Past, Vinyl Future with Don Was, Julia Keefe, Brandee Younger, Steven Duncan & Ashley Kahn and Conversation: His Mother Called Him Edward, The World Called Him Duke with Jason Moran & Ashley Kahn

Source: https://tisch.nyu.edu/about/directory/clive-davis-institute/1417614318
Source: https://montereyjazzfestival.org/

Host Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990's and has worked for Pacifica station KPFK Radio in Los Angeles since 1994.

Send us a text

Support the show

@profileswithmaggielepique
@maggielepique

Don Was is one of music’s most significant artists and executives, exceling in multiple roles and serving as one of the industry’s beacons for integrity and forward-thinking. During this period of disruption and rapid evolution in the worldwide music business, Was remains committed to music as an art form and its importance to contemporary culture. As the President of Blue Note Records since 2011, Was is both the company’s leader and an ambassador for its music, charged with bringing the label’s 21st Century jazz artists and its expanding pallet of contemporary musicians to larger audiences. Was is also caretaker for Blue Note’s singular and historic catalogue of music, and is burnishing the label’s 80-year legacy by overseeing ongoing and extensive reissue campaigns that serve audiences in both the analogue and digital realms.
His latest musical group is Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble
Made up of stellar jazz musicians from his Detroit hometown, The Pan-Detroit Ensemble will perform a mix of new originals, interpretations of songs written by artists like Yusef Lateef, Olu Dara, and Henry Threadgill, and of course updated cuts from albums that Don recorded with Orquestra Was and Was (Not Was).
His Pan-Detroit Ensemble is made up of many of the city’s great jazz musicians including saxophonist Dave McMurray, keyboardist Luis Resto, and vocalist Steffanie Christi’an, with a sound marked by a funky, urban rawness and bone-deep grooves. Don & Maggie speak about the Monterey Jazz Festival and his new group and what's next in the Blue Note Catalog!



Source:https://donwas.com/
Source: https://www.kennedy-center.org/artists/w/wa-wn/don-was/
Source: https://www.sfjazz.org/tickets/productions/24-25/don-was-pan-detroit-ensemble/

Host Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990's and has worked for Pacifica station KPFK Radio in Los Angeles since 1994.

Send us a text

Support the show

@profileswithmaggielepique
@maggielepique

The sonically innovative harpist, Brandee Younger, is revolutionizing harp for the digital era. Over the past fifteen years, she has worked relentlessly to stretch boundaries and limitations for harpists.  In 2022, she made history by becoming the first Black woman to be nominated for a Grammy® Award for Best Instrumental Composition. That same year, she was also nominated for an NAACP Image Award and later, the winner of the 2024 NAACP Image Award in the category of Outstanding Jazz Album for her latest album Brand New Life.  Ever-expanding as an artist, she has worked with cultural icons including Common, Lauryn Hill, John Legend, Pharoah Sanders and Christian McBride.   Her original composition “Hortense” was featured in the Netflix Concert-Documentary, Beyoncé: Homecoming and in 2019, Brandee was selected to perform her original music as a featured performer for Quincy Jones and Steve McQueens’ “Soundtrack of America”.  Brandee is often noted for standing on the shoulders of the very women who ushered in the harp as a clear and distinct voice in jazz & popular styles - particularly Detroit natives Dorothy Ashby & Alice Coltrane.  Her new album, Brand New Life, builds on her already rich oeuvre, and cements the harp’s place in pop culture.  As the title of the album suggests, Brand New Life is about forging new paths–artistic, personal, political, and spiritual.  Younger's music is imbued with a sense of purpose and respect of legacy, creating a larger platform for the harp to reach newer and wider audiences than ever before.  In addition to teaching at Steinhardt, Younger holds leadership positions as a board member of The Coltrane Home and New Music USA.
Maggie speaks with Brandee at the 67 Monterey Jazz Festival about her band and her association with Alice Coltrane and  The Year of Alice.
“No harpist thus far has been more capable of combining all of the modern harp traditions — from Salzedo, through Dorothy Ashby, through Alice Coltrane — with such strength, grace and commitment.” -  The New York Times
Follow: @harpista

Source: https://brandeeyounger.com/
Source:https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/people/brandee-younger
Source: https://thecoltranehome.org/2024/03/16/let-the-year-of-alice-begin/

Host Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990's and has worked for Pacifica station KPFK Radio in Los Angeles since 1994.

Send us a text

Support the show

@profileswithmaggielepique
@maggielepique

Lila Downs is one of the most influential artists in Latin America. She has one of the most unique voices in the world and is known for her charismatic performances. His own compositions combine genres and rhythms as diverse as Mexican rancheras and corridos, boleros, jazz standards, hip-hop, cumbia and popular American music. Frequently her lyrics focus on justice, immigration and women’s problems.

She grew up in both Minnesota and Oaxaca, Mexico, her mother is from the Mixtec indigenous group and her father was Scottish-American. Lila sings in Spanish, English and several native American languages ​​such as Zapotec, Mixtec, Nahuatl, Mayan and Purepecha.

She has recorded duets with artists as diverse as Mercedes Sosa, Caetano Veloso, Juanes, Nora Jones, Juan Gabriel, Carla Morison, Natalia LaFourcade, Santana , The boss, Nina Pastori, Soledad, Diego La Cigala, Aida Cuevas, Toto La Momposina, and Bunbury. Chavela Vargas “named” Lila as her “successor.”

She has been invited to sing with symphonies such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony and the UNAM Symphony in Mexico, as well as with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. He has given concerts at Carnegie Hall, the Lincoln Center, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the Hollywood Bowl and the National Auditorium in Mexico City. She was invited by Barack Obama to sing in the White House, and acted in the Oscars for her participation in the film Frida. Lila has recorded nine studio albums.

She has been nominated for nine Grammy awards and has won six.
Maggie & Lila discuss her first appearance at the infamous Monterey Jazz Festival and her amazing performance + members of her current band. 

Source: https://www.liladowns.com/language/en/

Host Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990's and has worked for Pacifica station KPFK Radio in Los Angeles since 1994.

Send us a text

Support the show

@profileswithmaggielepique
@maggielepique

Don Was is one of music’s most significant artists and executives, exceling in multiple roles and serving as one of the industry’s beacons for integrity and forward-thinking. During this period of disruption and rapid evolution in the worldwide music business, Was remains committed to music as an art form and its importance to contemporary culture. As the President of Blue Note Records since 2011, Was is both the company’s leader and an ambassador for its music, charged with bringing the label’s 21st Century jazz artists and its expanding pallet of contemporary musicians to larger audiences. Was is also caretaker for Blue Note’s singular and historic catalogue of music, and is burnishing the label’s 80-year legacy by overseeing ongoing and extensive reissue campaigns that serve audiences in both the analogue and digital realms.
His latest musical group is Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble
Made up of stellar jazz musicians from his Detroit hometown, The Pan-Detroit Ensemble will perform a mix of new originals, interpretations of songs written by artists like Yusef Lateef, Olu Dara, and Henry Threadgill, and of course updated cuts from albums that Don recorded with Orquestra Was and Was (Not Was).
His Pan-Detroit Ensemble is made up of many of the city’s great jazz musicians including saxophonist Dave McMurray, keyboardist Luis Resto, and vocalist Steffanie Christi’an, with a sound marked by a funky, urban rawness and bone-deep grooves. Don & Maggie speak about the Monterey Jazz Festival and his new group and what's next in the Blue Note Catalog!



Source:https://donwas.com/
Source: https://www.kennedy-center.org/artists/w/wa-wn/don-was/
Source: https://www.sfjazz.org/tickets/productions/24-25/don-was-pan-detroit-ensemble/

Host Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990's and has worked for Pacifica station KPFK Radio in Los Angeles since 1994.

Send us a text

Support the show

@profileswithmaggielepique
@maggielepique