*Let’s keep it real. You’ve got to be pretty outstanding for somebody like Quincy Jones to give you the time of day.
I mean c’mon, “Q”? The man who made a pivotal dent in the direction of careers belonging to artists like The King of Pop, The Queen of Soul, The Brothers Johnson and Donna Summer?
And they are just the tip of a humongous iceberg.
Shoot, as quiet as its kept, some people would consider it an honor just to smell this man’s breath.
I’m jus’ sayin’.
So for him to be so impressed by the talent coming from a relatively unknown musician, a skinny dude with the face of a teenager, that even makes playing a violin look cool, whew!
If the music coming from Lee England, Jr. was a meal, you’d be ready to slap somebody.
The dude is bad.
And to see the poise and ease and passion that he exudes while he’s playing, he’s gotta know this.
But what in the heck did he do to attract Quincy Jones? Why would Q, who not unlike any other megastar, probably looks for the nearest exit as soon as the lights come up—make a beeline to meet up with this dude?
Not only that, the icon was so taken with him, he pretty much signed him up to do an entire concert using his name: Quincy Jones Presents: Lee England, Jr.
“In March I did a show at the Geffen Playhouse that was honoring Elton John and George Lucas. And Lady Gaga pretty much opened the night and I came on in the middle of the show. Apparently, I did a phenomenal job because afterwards I garnered the attention of Quincy Jones,” says the young virtuoso about the Backstage at the Geffen fundraiser that sparked the relationship with Jones.
England tells EURThisNthat editor DeBorah B. Pryor, who went to see him perform to a packed house and very appreciative crowd (he got several standing ovations and Quincy even showed up!) The event was another fundraiser for The Geffen; this time for the center’s Arts Education program.
England continues, elaborating on that first meeting with Q…
The musician says he had been so hyped preparing for the Elton John event, now that it was over, he was “cooling down. So he grabbed a glass of wine and went and found a seat in a quiet place where he could just relax and watch the rest of the show.
Then Quincy Jones approached.
“I was like, ‘Oh my god its Quincy Jones,'” England sounds excited even now, as he describes the scene.
“So he sits down next to me and we exchange a couple of words; and I’m like, ‘man, I’ve got to come up with something cool to say,'” recalls the musician, as he shares what he was thinking while the two Pisces men are having small talk.
England says Jones soon went onstage to present an award to Elton John, and afterwards, appeared to be making a quick exit to the elevator, but then he turned and saw the young musician again.
“He took about three steps and turned around and saw me still sitting there,” England states. “We talked for about an hour. The show was over and we were still sitting back there. People were looking for us. They were like, ‘where’s Lee,’ because they wanted me to come out to the lobby to see people. And they were like, ‘well where’s Quincy!'” he laughs at the memory.
“He had so much information, and I just sat there being a sponge, and soaked it all up.” England recalls.
Just one week prior to the Elton John event, England says he was in a meeting with people at The Geffen; who were trying to figure out the logistics of what they were going to do.
“At a certain point in the meeting I told them, ‘This is where you’ve got to trust me…I’ve got you!” England told them.
“They were so ecstatic with the response and how well I had put things together,” he said. “It’s funny because the first thing Quincy asked me was, ‘who arranged the music.’ And I was like, ‘I did.'”
Imagine being able to provide such an answer!
England says, with this being the icon’s thing , there was a mutual understanding that needed no words.
“He just paused and looked at me. [It was like] ‘OK, we don’t even have to talk about that because you’re well versed in this and that,” said England referring to the understanding that the well established musician came to after realizing he was not talking to an amateur.
England was first introduced to the violin at the age of six. He tells a funny story of how after hearing the beauty of the instrument when someone played it, his father suggested he play the violin. But when he tried, it sounded nothing like he expected, so he told his dad that he didn’t want to play.
But his dad, who has since passed away, yet he speaks so lovingly of him, “tricked him” and said it was OK if he didn’t want to play; but he should “practice for 15 minutes each day.”
And his talent today is the result.
England, who has performed for Jay-Z & Beyonce, at Rihanna’s Diamond Ball, for the NAACP Image Awards and at the John Wayne Cancer Institute, tells this loving story to his audience.
Born and raised in Waukegan, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, England reminisces, “my father was a very quiet man, but when he said something it was [either] profound or hilarious. When he disciplined us it was not out of anger or rage; it was more like ‘I told you if you do this, this is the consequences. So if my father was reprimanding me, I knew exactly what it was for. I knew exactly what I did. There was almost a military precision to the way he disciplined us.”
He has been fortunate to travel the world and has appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live, the Mo’Nique Show, and on Sean “Diddy” Combs’ “Making the Band.” He even performed his own rendition of “Clash of the Titans” for a Super Bowl 2014 commercial.
B-Ball legend Michael Jordan even tapped England who was on tour when he was invited to perform at the player’s birthday dinner celebration. Jordan was so enamored with England, he offered Lee an endorsement through the Jordan Brand to support his artistic endeavors, a spot usually reserved for athletes, making Lee one of four non-athletes to represent the brand.
Quincy Jones must have been so proud of him at the “Quincy Jones Presents…” event; especially seeing how the people kept jumping up and applauding (he had them eating out of his hands). Q describes Lee as a “remarkable talent that comes by very rarely, creating original and unique music straight from his soul.” The “Listen Up” and “Q: Soul Bossa Nostra“ composer adds that England’s “…imagination and musical innovation speaks to all of us, reinforcing that music is, indeed, a universal language.”
I asked Lee, who has three music degrees and previously taught music in public school in Chicago, what he thinks he would be doing now had he not become successful in his music career.
“I think about that all the time actually. I enjoy so many things, but…I would probably be trying to figure out how to fly.”
How to fly, this writer asked, befuddled…
“Because I’ve seen the guys in Dubai with all the flight suits and stuff. And when I was younger I always had a fascination with roller coasters and because of that fascination… I wanted to be an astronaut, he says.
This brilliant artist and humble human being has not let fame go to his head. One of the best past-times for him…still…is hanging out on Venice Beach (near Santa Monica) California and playing his violin. He has quite a community of friends there; including other street musicians, vendors and residents, who he learned has nicknamed him “Carnegie” because of his giving nature.
The name holds a special place in Lee’s heart because of the man it came from, Andrew Carnegie, an industrialist by trade, but known for his enormous acts of philanthropy.
An example of this in Lee England is his own nonprofit organization, Love Notes, LLC. And his dedication and commitment to those less fortunate (he always gives a percentage from his performances to charity); and even before he started working regularly, whenever he had an extra buck from his work as a street artist, he shared it with others.
His respect for the work of other artists is clear. At the fundraise for The Geffen, where he and all of the artists that joined him donated their time and talents, he had an incredible group of talented musicians that included one of the most incredible spoken word artists you will ever hear in Brandon ‘Real Talk’ Williams, George Jackson III on guitar, Brent Easton on drums, AJ Fanning on Cello, funky bassist Dale Black, James Thompson on Viola and Tommy King on an awesome piano. He even brought in two young violinists that he had only recently met: Erynn Hill and Lucine Fyelon, who did an incredible “call and response” violin challenge with England.
Pure gold.
As our interview began to wind down, I asked Lee England, Jr. something that I have heard EURweb publisher, Lee Bailey, ask many of the celebrities he interviews before shutting down: Is there anything you’d like to reveal that I may not have asked you about?
To this Lee says,
“I heard Louis Farrakhan say this, just recently, and the questions that you’re asking, this brought it all into perspective. He said “he realized that playing classical music as a violinist, opens you up to a universal language. And it makes you start to understand the commonality that we all share and puts you in the position to speak to everyone.”
I’d say that makes you, Lee England, Jr., multilingual.
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