Quincy Jones, the multi-talented music titan whose vast legacy ranged from producing Michael Jackson’s historic “Thriller” album to writing prize-winning film and television scores and collaborating with Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles and hundreds of other recording artists, has died at 91.
Jones’ publicist, Arnold Robinson, says he died Sunday night at his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles, surrounded by his family. Jones was to have received an honorary Academy Award later this month.
Music titan Quincy Jones, legendary producer of Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller,’ dies at 91
Quincy Jones, best known as the architect of Michael Jackson‘s “Thriller” and the man who made stars collide for 1985’s “We Are the World,” had a long career as a composer and trumpeter who broke down racial boundaries in music and film.
Jones died on Sunday, his publicist said. He was 91.
Born on March 14, 1933 in the South Side of Chicago, Jones went on to be known as a musical mastermind; he had a creative hand in producing some of the most memorable albums in music history. Michael Jackson’s Thriller is widely considered his magnum opus, but he also worked alongside fellow legends such as Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, Donna Summer, Chaka Khan, and countless others.
Jones won an astonishing 27 Grammy Awards throughout his career as an arranger and producer, and his legacy intersected with those of Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington and Lesley Gore.
Born March 14, 1933, to Sarah and Quincy Delight Jones, he and younger brother, Lloyd, grew up in gang-riddled Great Depression Chicago. His mother suffered from mental illness and was institutionalized when he was 5, and his father moved the family to Bremerton, Washington.
When he was 11, Jones broke into the Armory recreation center in Bremerton to steal food. Inside, he found an upright piano. As he would later say in interviews, this was the moment that led him from a childhood of petty crime to a life of music.
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His chance encounter with the piano led Jones to try a medley of instruments before settling on trumpet. By age 14, he was playing the club circuit with 16-year-old friend Ray Charles, freewheeling from jazz, to big band, to bebop. After high school, Jones toured the world with jazz greats Lionel Hampton and Dizzy Gillespie.
He was also the maestro behind 1985’s ensemble extraordinaire “We Are the World” which went on to be the year’s highest selling single and raised money for famine relief in Africa. During his career he also had a hand in helping compose some of the most famous songs in film and television history; the theme songs to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Sanford and Son along with the Oscar-nominated score to 1985’s The Color Purple all had Jones’s magic touch. Under his company Quincy Jones Entertainment, he also helped create formative hip-hop magazine Vibe along with Qwest Broadcasting.
“If an album doesn’t do well, everyone says ‘it was the producers fault’; so if it does well, it should be your ‘fault,’ too,” Jones told the Library of Congress in 2016. “The tracks don’t just all of a sudden appear. The producer has to have the skill, experience and ability to guide the vision to completion.”
Jones was married three times; to Jeri Caldwell (1957-1966), Ulla Anderson (1967-1974), and Peggy Lipton (1974-1990), and later from 1991-1995 he was in a relationship with Nastassja Kinski. He is survived by his 7 children; daughters Rashida Jones, Jolie Jones Levine, Rachel Jones, Martina Jones, Kidada Jones and Kenya Kinski-Jones, his son, Quincy Jones III, along with his brother Richard Jones and sisters Theresa Frank and Margie Jay.
