Legendary music producer, Quincy Jones died last night at the age of 91. The composer, who won 28 Grammy Award out of 80 nominations, passed away at his home in Bel Air, according to his publicist, Arnold Robinson.
“Tonight, with full but broken hearts, we must share the news of our father and brother Quincy Jones’ passing. And although this is an incredible loss for our family, we celebrate the great life that he lived and know there will never be another like him,” Jones’ family said in a statement posted by NBC News.
In a prolific career that spanned more than 70 years, Jones established himself as one of the top record producers and songwriters in Hollywood. He also made a name for himself as an arranger and performer.
Jones left a long-lasting influence on such genres as jazz, pop and hip-hop. He collaborated with some of the most illustrious musicians in Hollywood, including Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin and Paul Simon, on his work. The musician notably garnered widespread attention for producing Michael Jackson’s hit record, Thriller.
Jones, who contributed music to dozens of film and television soundtracks, also delved into producing movies and TV shows. Amongst his screen producing credits are Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of The Color Purple. Jones also formed the production company that produced the NBC sitcom, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
After he began scoring Hollywood films in 1965, Jones received two Oscar nominations, including best original song for The Love of Ivy and best original score for In Cold Blood in 1968. He also became the first Black musical director for the Academy Awards ceremony in 1971. He later executive produce the award show’s telecast in 1996.
Besides his dozens of Grammys, the producer received numerous other awards and accolades, including recognition at the John F. Kennedy Center Honors in 2001 and a National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama in 2010. The musician was also induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2013. In 2021, he joined James Brown and Otis Redding as one of the first three foundational inductees of the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame in Atlanta.
While honoring Jones, Obama called the producer a “master inventor of musical hybrids. He has mixed pop, soul, hip-hop, jazz, classical, African, and Brazilian music into many dazzling fusions, traversing virtually every medium, including records, live performances, movies and television.”
Jones also won an Emmy in 1977 for writing the theme for the first episode of the miniseries Roots. He later received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Oscars in 1994.
The musician was born in Chicago on March 14, 1933. His parents were Quincy Delight Jones, a semiprofessional baseball player and carpenter, and Sarah Frances, a bank officer and apartment complex manager.
In the early 1940s, Jones and his family relocated to Bremerton, Washington, where he studied the trumpet and worked with Ray Charles. The singer was said to have helped persuade Jones to pursue his interest in the musical arts.
Jones was first exposed to music by his mother, who sang religious songs. He later studied briefly at the Schillinger House, which is now known as the Berklee College of Music, in Boston in the 1950s. He then started touring with the jazz great Lionel Hampton as a trumpeter and arranger.
Jones also eventually became a skilled freelance arranger. He worked with such esteemed jazz musicians as Cannonball Adderley, Count Basie, Clifford Brown, Oscar Pettiford and Dinah Washington.
Abroad, Jones toured with Dizzy Gillespie’s big band across the Middle East and South America in 1956. He also worked at the Barclay record label in Paris. That stint was followed by him leading an all-star big band for the European run of Harold Arlen’s blues opera in two acts, Free and Easy.
Jones returned to the U.S. in 1961, becoming an artists-and-repertoire director for Mercury Records. Three years later, he was promoted to a vice president position. As a result, he was one of the first Black Americans with an executive-level position at a major U.S. record company.
In the 1960s, Jones arranged and produced albums while also establishing himself as a go-to composer for movie scores. He worked on the soundtrack for Sidney Lumet’s The Pawnbroker and Norman Jewison’s In the Heat of the Night.
The musician took a break from his work briefly in 1974 while he recovered from a brain aneurysm. His medical condition was believed to be so dire that his friends and family believed he may not recover. He eventually attended his own memorial service alongside Richard Pryor, Sidney Poitier and Marvin Gaye.
In 1975, Jones founded his own record label, Qwest Productions. While working at the company, he signed artists like Patti Austin and the British group New Order.
Three years later, he produced the soundtrack for Lumet’s movie musical The Wiz. The retelling of The Wizard of Oz starred Jackson and Diana Ross.
As a record producer, Jones not only produced Thriller for Jackson, but also his albums Off the Wall and Bad. Each LP sold tens of millions of copies.
Jones was also a prolific philanthropist. He helped recruit such well-respected performers as Bob Dylan, Tina Turner, Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Wonder for We Are the World. The song served as a 1985 charity single that raised money for victims of famine in Ethiopia.
In his later years, Jones remained productive in the arts and philanthropic activities. He also published a memoir, Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones, in 2001.
In 2018, he was the subject of a Netflix documentary, Quincy. The Grammy-winning project was directed by one of his daughters, The Office star Rashida Jones.
“He’s lived such a big life,” Rashida told USA TODAY in a joint interview with her father at the time. “I just cannot believe all of this experience is contained in this one human being who just happens to be my dad.”
Besides Rashida, the music producer leaves behind six other children: Jolie Jones Levine, with first wife, actress Jeri Caldwell; Martina Jones and Quincy Jones III, with second wife, model Ulla Andersson; Kidada Jones with third wife, Mod Squad actress Peggy Lipton; Rachel Jones, with Carol Reynolds; and Kenya Julia Miambi Sarah Jones, with actress Nastassja Kinski.
Jones’ name appears as a producer, composer, conductor, arranger or performer on more than 400 albums. He composed approximately 35 movie scores.