( CNN ) -- If there 's one thing Quincy Jones ca n't stand , it 's people without a sense of history . Music producer and composer Quincy Jones says he wants to encourage arts education in the United States . Particularly musical history . `` I was in Seattle about a month ago , and I asked a kid [ at a local high school ] , 'What do you think about Louis Armstrong ? ' And he said , ' I 've heard the name , ' `` Jones says in a phone interview from Washington , D.C. `` I said , 'What do you think about Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker and Coltrane ? ' He said , ' I 've never heard of them . ' `` And that hurts me a lot . Because it 's easier to get where you 're going if you know where you came from . '' Jones , who was in Washington to accept yet another honor in a life that 's been filled with accolades -- in this case , an Inspire Award from AARP The Magazine for his work as a poverty fighter -- knows exactly how he got to be where he is . The producer , composer , arranger and music industry eminence grise has made versatility and hard work his life 's guiding principles . When he was 14 , Jones met a 16-year-old Ray Charles . By the time Jones was 18 , he was playing in Lionel Hampton 's band . He produced Lesley Gore 's hit records , including `` It 's My Party , '' and arranged for Count Basie and Frank Sinatra . He was nominated for an Oscar for his `` In Cold Blood '' score ( one of seven Academy Award nominations ) , wrote music for `` Roots '' and then produced Michael Jackson 's `` Off the Wall , '' `` Thriller '' and `` Bad . '' All this and charitable work through his Quincy Jones Foundation . Even today , at 75 , he has a number of projects brewing , including a miniseries on Armstrong , a film on Brazil 's Carnival , a Tony Bennett-Stevie Wonder duets album and an entry in Las Vegas , Nevada 's restaurant business . One look through Jones ' new book , `` The Complete Quincy Jones : My Journey & Passions '' ( Insight Editions ) , shows how Q -- the nickname Sinatra gave him -- found his way . See some of the season 's other great coffee-table books » . The book , which arrives seven years after Jones ' revealing autobiography , is practically a Q scrapbook . There 's a photo of Jones recording Dinah Washington ; a copy of the lead sheet of `` We Are the World '' ; a map of Jones ' exhausting trip through Europe in 1960 , a tour that left him almost $ 150,000 in debt . The material is richly packaged and cleverly designed , with some in the form of replicas of record covers and correspondence . Ironically , given his sense of history , it was n't Jones who saved this treasure-trove . He gives credit to his brother and sister-in-law , who `` saved everything . '' `` I used to write a log every day when I was starving to death in New York in the early '50s -- every little arrangement , because we were surviving on that , '' he says . `` They had all of that material . I had no idea they saved all that . I move too fast to do all that , '' he laughs . But he remains passionate , particularly about music and history . He has hopes Barack Obama will appoint a secretary of the arts . `` Our music is the most widely imitated music on the planet , and we 're the only country without a minister of culture . ... All over the world they understand our music better than we do . '' For his part , he 's doing the best to pass on his knowledge -- and keep moving . Looking at `` The Complete Quincy Jones , '' he says , was eye-opening . `` It startled me . It still does . [ You look at the index ] , and you say , how did all this happen ? ... It 's an astounding experience . `` And what 's strange about it , '' he adds , `` is I feel like I 'm just starting . ''
Quincy Jones Foundation new book is coffee-table tome showcasing life , the United States . At seven years , Composer as active as ever : new album , restaurant among projects . Jones , producer wants to push national arts minister .