Quincy Jones, Legendary Music Producer, Dies at 91

Quincy Jones, the musical large whose six-decade, barrier-breaking profession encompassed many artistic personas—musician, songwriter, producer, conductor, arranger, artist, report label proprietor and government, TV/movie producer, journal writer and humanitarian—has died. He was 91.

In accordance with Jones’ publicist, Arnold Robinson, the 28-time Grammy Award winner (out of a report 80 nominations) and Rock & Roll Corridor of Famer died on Sunday evening (Nov. 3) at his dwelling within the Bel Air part of Los Angeles, surrounded by his household.

“Tonight, with full however damaged hearts, we should share the information of our father and brother Quincy Jones’ passing,” the household mentioned in a press release. “And though that is an unbelievable loss for our household, we rejoice the good life that he lived and know there’ll by no means be one other like him.”

“He’s actually considered one of a sort and we’ll miss him dearly; we take consolation and immense delight in realizing that the love and pleasure, that had been the essence of his being, was shared with the world by all that he created. By way of his music and his boundless love, Quincy Jones’ coronary heart will beat for eternity.”

Among the many survivors are his seven kids, together with actress Rashida Jones.

“Quincy Jones is the final word music renaissance man,” fellow music legend Clive Davis instructed Billboard in 2013. “Quincy is ever younger, ever important, with an creativeness as giant as the most important coronary heart on this planet.”

In a monumental profession spanning greater than 60 years, Jones collaborated with a bunch of musical luminaries starting from mentors Depend Basie and Clark Terry to Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra and Michael Jackson. Amongst a cross-section of his storied accomplishments: Jones produced Jackson’s best-selling albums Off the Wall, Thriller and Unhealthy; obtained the rights to the novel The Shade Purple and forged a younger Oprah Winfrey in Steven Spielberg’s 1985 Oscar-nominated movie adaptation; and helmed the historic recording classes for the 1985 all-star charity single and Billboard Scorching 100 No. 1 “We Are the World.” Taking the A&R helm at Mercury Data in 1961, Jones grew to become the primary African-American to function a VP at a serious label. That affiliation resulted in his producing a number of hits for Lesley Gore, starting along with her 1963 pop debut “It’s My Social gathering.”

Jones broke the colour barrier once more as the primary black composer to obtain identify recognition for his movie work. The primary theatrical function that Jones scored was Sidney Lumet’s The Pawnbroker in 1964. With the help of Lumet and different trade allies like Henry Mancini and Sidney Poitier, Jones composed the music for 2 landmark movies launched in 1967: finest image Oscar winner Within the Warmth of the Night time and In Chilly Blood, based mostly on the Truman Capote bestseller.

Segueing into tv, Jones wrote the memorable theme songs for such collection as The Invoice Cosby Present, Ironside and Sanford and Son. He additionally government produced The Contemporary Prince of Bel-Air, starring rapper and fledgling actor Will Smith, and Within the Home, starring LL Cool J.

“Stop” was a overseas phrase to Jones, who survived two mind aneurysms in 1974. After the primary, he wrote in his 2008 e-book, The Full Quincy Jones: My Journey & Passions: Photographs, Letters, Recollections & Extra from Q’s Private Assortment, “It didn’t seem like I’d make it, so my buddies deliberate a memorial service. … They’d the live performance anyway.” Together with his neurologist at his aspect, he attended the service on the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles as Richard Pryor, Marvin Gaye, Sarah Vaughan and Sidney Poitier paid tribute to his nice expertise and legacy.

Wanting again on his profession on the event of his 80^th birthday, Jones instructed Billboard, “I really feel lucky to have been born at a time the place I used to be capable of work with each one that formed the historical past of American tradition. It’s God’s plan, and also you simply need to open your coronary heart and embrace each a part of it.”

Quincy Delight Jones Jr. was born in Chicago on March 14, 1933, to oldsters Quincy Delight Jones Sr. and Sarah Frances Jones, and was raised together with his solely full-blood brother, Lloyd. His mom labored in a financial institution earlier than being admitted to a psychological establishment for schizophrenia when Quincy was only a teen; his father was a carpenter who performed semi-pro baseball.

Quincy Sr. divorced Sarah shortly after she was institutionalized and remarried a lady named Elvera, who had three kids. They then had three extra of their very own, for an eight-sibling household.

“We had been within the coronary heart of the biggest black ghetto in Chicago throughout the Despair,” Jones recalled in an interview for the Academy of Achievement, “and each block was the spawning floor for each gangster, black and white, in America too. So we had been round all of that.”

In 1943, his father uprooted the household to transfer to Bremerton, Wash., after which to Seattle, the place Quincy Jr. attended Garfield Excessive College and ignited his ardour for music by finding out composition and studying to play the trumpet. When simply a young person, Jones met a 16-year-old Ray Charles—a gathering captured within the 2004 Jamie Foxx–starring biopic Ray—who grew to become an enormous inspiration, instructor and good friend. They might later work collectively on quite a few musical initiatives.

Whereas attending Seattle College, Jones performed within the faculty band and continued to review music, however accomplished only one semester earlier than transferring to Boston’s Berklee School of Music on a scholarship. He in the end left Berklee to tour with Lionel Hampton as a trumpeter, earlier than establishing himself as an arranger for a few of the period’s main abilities, together with Charles, Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Duke Ellington and Gene Krupa.

As a solo artist, Jones signed with ABC Paramount Data in 1956 and moved to Paris a yr later, when he grew to become the musical director for Mercury Data’ French distributor Barclay Data. Along with finding out composition with Nadia Boulanger, he toured all through Europe working as musical director for composer Harold Arlen’s Free and Straightforward touring present. He additionally shaped a band known as The Jones Boys that was comprised of jazz artists from that present. They received nice opinions, however cash was scarce.

“We had one of the best jazz band on the planet, and but we had been actually ravenous,” he instructed Musician journal. “That’s after I found that there was music and there was the music enterprise. If I had been to outlive, I must study the distinction between the 2.”

Jones started working with Frank Sinatra in 1958 after they collaborated on a profit present for which Jones did the preparations. Sinatra—who nicknamed Jones “Q”—later employed him to rearrange his 1964 album It May as Nicely Be Swing with the Depend Basie Orchestra. His first Grammy win was in 1964 for finest association on the Depend Basie Orchestra’s “I Can’t Cease Loving You.” Jones subsequent labored on the 1966 dwell set Sinatra on the Sands, which contained his well-known association of “Fly Me to the Moon” (the primary recording performed by astronaut Buzz Aldrin when he landed on the moon in 1969). Sinatra and Jones additionally labored collectively on numerous TV reveals and different recordings, leading to subsequent arranging gigs for different artists like Billy Eckstine and Peggy Lee.

“There was no grey to the person. It was both black or white,” Jones mentioned of Sinatra in 2001’s Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones. “If he beloved you, there was nothing on this planet he wouldn’t do for you. If he didn’t such as you, disgrace in your ass. I do know he beloved me too. In all of the years working collectively, we by no means as soon as had a contract—only a handshake.”

Irving Inexperienced, president and founding father of Mercury Data, helped Jones safe a music director place on the label, and by 1964, he’d superior to VP, turning into the primary African-American to realize that publish at a serious label. Throughout his Mercury tenure, Jones moonlighted as a movie composer, scoring the critically acclaimed Pawnbroker for Lumet, which led to his leaving Mercury and relocating to Los Angeles to pursue extra movie work.

In 1965, he composed the rating for Sydney Pollack’s first movie, The Slender Thread, starring Poitier. Jones went on to attain greater than 35 motion pictures, together with Stroll, Don’t Run (1966), Carl Reiner’s Enter Laughing (1967), Paul Mazursky’s Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969), The Italian Job (1969), Cactus Flower (1969), They Name Me Mister Tibbs! (1970) and The Getaway (1972).

In 1968, Jones grew to become the primary African-American to obtain two Oscar nominations in the identical yr. He and songwriting accomplice Bob Russell (they had been the primary African-People to be nominated for finest unique tune) had been honored for “The Eyes of Love” from the Robert Wagner romantic drama Banning, and his unique rating for In Chilly Blood was nominated as effectively. Jones’ whole of six Academy Award nominations embrace finest image, unique rating and unique tune for 1985’s The Shade Purple, which acquired 11 Academy Award nods total.

In 1971 Jones grew to become the primary African-American to be named musical director and conductor for the Oscars; he later served as government producer for the Academy Awards in 1996. His acceptance of the Academy of Movement Image Arts and Sciences’ Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1995 marked one other first for an African-American. With seven Oscar nods, he tied with sound designer Willie D. Burton because the African-American with essentially the most nominations.

Alongside the best way, Jones’ spate of solo albums additionally introduced the multi-faceted expertise important and well-liked acclaim, starting with 1969’s Strolling in Area and together with Gula Matari, Smackwater Jack, You’ve Obtained It Unhealthy Woman, Physique Warmth, Mellow Insanity, I Heard That!, Sounds … And Stuff Like That!, The Dude and Again on the Block. As a songwriter, his huge catalog has been sampled by such artists because the late Tupac Shakur and Kanye West. Certainly one of Jones’ most-licensed tracks is 1962’s “Soul Bossa Nova.” The energetic observe was used for the 1998 World Cup in France, Woody Allen’s Take the Cash and Run (1969), the Austin Powers motion pictures and on tv’s Glee.

In 1975, Jones based Qwest Productions, for which he organized and produced albums by Sinatra and different main pop stars. He produced the soundtrack for The Wiz (1978), starring Jackson and Diana Ross. Quickly thereafter, he and the longer term King of Pop recorded a collection of game-changing albums that features the top-selling Thriller.

“I believe it’s protected to say that what we—Michael Jackson, me, Rod Temperton, Bruce Swedien, Jerry Hey, Greg Phillinganes and my complete studio A-Workforce—did with Off the Wall, Thriller and Unhealthy won’t ever be matched,” Jones instructed Billboard in 2013. “It was the right convergence of expertise, expertise and timing, with sufficient area for God to stroll by the room.”

Establishing Qwest Data in 1980 as a three way partnership with Warner Music Group, Jones oversaw an eclectic group of artist, together with Sinatra, British post-punk band New Order, Pleasure Division, James Ingram, Tevin Campbell, Andraé Crouch, Patti Austin, Siedah Garrett, Gregory Jefferson and Justin Warfield.

Past leisure, social activism performed an necessary position all through Jones’ life. He supported Martin Luther King Jr. within the Nineteen Sixties, labored with Jesse Jackson’s P.U.S.H. motion, and teamed with Bono on a lot of humanitarian initiatives. He based a company known as The Quincy Jones Pay attention Up Basis, devoted to constructing properties in Africa and empowering youth through instructional applications in music and tradition.

Turning his consideration to famine reduction in 1985, Jones gathered collectively a various lineup of music superstars inside A&M Studios in L.A., main the recording session for “We Are the World”—famously directing the assembled artists to “test your ego on the door.” The Grammy Award-winning USA for Africa profit single raised greater than $63 million for Ethiopian famine reduction.

In 1990, he shaped Quincy Jones Leisure in a co-venture with Time Warner. QJE produced the NBC sitcom Contemporary Prince of Bel-Air, which put rapper Smith on the map as an actor, in addition to UPN’s Within the Home and Fox’s Mad TV, amongst others. In 1993, he co-founded QDE, Quincy Jones/David Salzman Leisure. Along with producing movies, TV reveals and academic leisure, QDE printed two magazines, VIBE and Spin.

Past his 27 Grammy Awards, Jones’ quite a few accolades embrace the Grammy Dwelling Legend and Trustees awards and France’s highest honor: Commandeur de la Legion d’Honneur. Inducted into the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame in 2013, Jones had most lately produced the 2014 documentary Carry on Keepin’ On, about jazz trumpeter Clark Terry and his mentorship of blind piano prodigy Justin Kauflin.

In his later years, Jones continued to remain busy discovering and nurturing next-generation artists together with Kauflin, Nikki Yanofsky, Emily Bear and Alfredo Rodriguez. He carried out within the World Peace Live performance in Hiroshima, Japan in 2013, launched such ventures as Dubai Music Week by his International Gumbo group of worldwide artists, created the musical app Playground Classes and partnered on branded merchandise from headphones (Harman) to watches (Audemars-Piguet). In 2013, he filed a $10 million lawsuit in opposition to MJJ Productions, managed by the Michael Jackson Property, and Sony Leisure, alleging that he was shorted royalties from posthumous releases. The presiding choose dominated in February 2016 that the case would proceed to trial on June 15.

Within the remaining chapter of his impactful profession, Jones introduced in 2023 a serious restructuring of Quincy Jones Productions, in the end closing its artist administration division. The choice marked a shift towards prioritizing artistic endeavors in music, movie, and know-how. Whereas stepping away from artist administration, Jones remained dedicated to mentoring younger expertise, celebrating the successes of Grammy winners like Jacob Collier and Jon Batiste, and expressing gratitude for the contributions of outgoing division president Adam Fell. Even with these modifications, Jones continued to help the subsequent technology of artists till his passing.

Quincy Jones Productions had been targeted on a dynamic slate of initiatives throughout numerous media. Amongst them had been movie, tv, and stage ventures, together with a musical adaptation of The Shade Purple and a Broadway present on the historical past of Black music. Jones additionally held influential partnerships, corresponding to his Q-Line audio merchandise with Harman Worldwide and Qwest TV, a streaming platform centered on jazz.

Final yr, Jones additionally celebrated his ninetieth birthday with a star-studded two-night tribute on the Hollywood Bow,). The celebration, led by his goddaughter Patti Austin and that includes performances from Stevie Surprise and rising jazz star Samara Pleasure, captured Jones’ six-decade profession and legacy as an artist, producer, arranger, and conductor. From soulful renditions of Jones’ classics to tributes from his longtime collaborators, the occasion underscored the profound affect he had on generations of musicians.

Performers, backed by core members of Jones’ home band and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, introduced Jones’ iconic work to life, together with collaborations with Michael Jackson, highlighted by renditions of “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” “P.Y.T.,” and “Man within the Mirror.” With powerhouse performances like Jennifer Hudson’s tackle “You Don’t Personal Me,” Jones’ contributions as a trailblazer in breaking racial boundaries within the trade had been additionally honored.

The night closed with Surprise main the ensemble in “Blissful Birthday,” a becoming tribute to a person whose work introduced individuals collectively.

Jones was married to high-school sweetheart Jeri Caldwell from 1957-66, to actress Ulla Andersson from 1967-74 and to actress Peggy Lipton of TV’s The Mod Squad (Rashida’s mother) from 1974-90. He’s survived by seven kids, together with one youngster apiece with dancer Carol Reynolds and actress Nastassja Kinski.

Further reporting by Gail Mitchell.