Quincy Jones' new book moves from jazz to pop

LOS ANGELES -- Quincy Jones bristles at accusations he sold out when he moved from jazz to pop music.

"People young and old try to minimize you by saying, 'Well, Quincy's strongest suit is that he's got a strong telephone book,'" said Jones, who in a half-century career has played, arranged and produced music with some of pop's biggest names.

But he has paid his dues as a jazz trumpeter and a music arranger.

"Seven hundred miles a night for years. Traveling on that band bus. Seventy gigs in just the Carolinas ... and get stranded with a big band in Europe, and some sucker is gonna come talk to me about sellin' out. Please."

Jones relates some of that history in the new book "Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones."

Market workers play stars in charity game

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. -- It was supermarket vs. superstars in a charity softball game that brought out Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Gary Sheffield and Hall-of-Famer Brooks Robinson.

Saturday's game was expected to raise about $100,000 for the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund and CapCure, which funds research and treatment of prostate cancer.

"I just felt like I had to contribute in some way for what America has done for me," Sheffield told the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin before Saturday's game. "When something like the tragedy of Sept. 11 happens, we've all got to get together."

Employees of the Vons and Safeway supermarket chains also went up against retired major leaguers Ryne Sandberg, Ken Griffey Sr., Ron Cey, Steve Garvey, Steve Yeager, Steve Carlton and Jay Johnstone.

The pros won, 11-6.

Crystal Gale gains place with Native Americans

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Country music star Crystal Gale has been inducted into the Native American Music Awards hall of fame.

"This is such an honor just being out here and being part of something that I feel so much a part of," she said Saturday at the fourth annual awards ceremony.

Gayle, who is part Cherokee, also performed "Don't it Make My Brown Eyes Blue," which earned her a Grammy.

Actress plays six women in one-woman show

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. -- Norwegian-born singer-actress Torrill has no problem playing famed chanteuse Edith Piaf and five other women in her one-woman show -- it's the costume changes that are tricky.

"The trick with doing a one-woman show is that you have to find an excuse to leave the stage and change and still keep the thread going," said Torrill. "So we do audio-video things to make me able to disappear for a few moments. You just change as fast as you can."

In "Piaf: Sa Vie En Rose," Torrill also plays Marlene Dietrich; Marie Dubois; Marinette Cerdan, wife of a Moroccan boxing champion; and Marguerite Monnot, Piaf's friend and songwriting partner.

-- From wire reports