The ultimate man of the hour, Quincy Jones, was his cool Chicagoan self + entertained the masses. | Photos by Dorothy Hong / Team Epiphany
Photo Credit: Dorothy Hong for Team Epiphany
Photo Credit: Dorothy Hong for Team Epiphany
Set to launch by Quincy Jones the streaming service will the be the first of its kind dedicated to jazz music and jazz-inspired music forms.
Called Qwest TV, the video-on-demand service will offer exclusive, original content including concerts, documentaries, interviews and archival footage to its subscribers on their mobile devices and computers in HD or 4K for a monthly fee starting at $7.49. The service touts itself as a vast source of jazz and the many artists the genre has influenced, stating that it will explore music from "Billie Holiday to Esperanza Spalding, Sun Ra to Kamasi Washington, Bill Evans to Flying Lotus, and Ravi Shankar's soaring sitar solos to the traditions of Cuban Santería."
READ: A Conversation With Quincy Jones, The Walking Museum
"The dream of Qwest TV is to let jazz and music lovers everywhere experience these incredibly rich and diverse musical traditions in a whole new way. At my core, I am a bebopper, and over the course of my seventy-year career in music I have witnessed firsthand the power of jazz – and all of its off-spring from the blues and R&B to pop, rock, and hip-hop, to tear down walls and bring the world together. I believe that a hundred years from now, when people look back at the 20th century, they will view Bird, Miles, and Dizzy, as our Mozarts, Bachs, Chopins and Tchaikovskys, and it is my hope that Qwest TV will serve to carry forth and build on the great legacy that is jazz for many generations to come," Jones said in a statement.
A Kickstarter campaign will begin in September for Qwest TV, where people will have the opportunity to get "pre-launch subscriptions." The first 1,500 will be "co-founding subscribers" and will be able to help develop the service before it starts, as well as receive a number of perks including a full year of Qwest TV Premium, VIP access to the Qwest TV team for sharing feedback and feature requests, as well as collectible t-shirts, posters, headphones, concert tickets, and gold, platinum, and vinyl records signed by Quincy Jones himself.
H/T: shadowandact.com
