Legendary musician, songwriter and producer Quincy Jones died Sunday, Nov. 3, at his home in California, The New York Times reported. The entertainment giant was 91 years old. The cause of his death has not been disclosed.
Jones was one of the most nominated artists in Grammy Award history, garnering 80 nominations and 28 awards throughout his career. The talented jazz musician and arranger distinguished himself from his contemporaries by his willingness to embrace multiple genres, jumping between R&B, pop, jazz and rap alone in the 1980s. With his production work for legends such as Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis, Lesley Gore and Donna Summer, his impact on contemporary music is nearly unmatched.
Born in Chicago in 1933, Quincy Delight Jones Jr. began playing trumpet in school at the age of 10. Several years after his training, he formed a band with fellow student Ray Charles. After attending Berklee College of Music in Boston, he began his career as a touring musician, serving as musical director for Dizzy Gillespie in the 1950s. In that decade, he also led his own band, releasing several jazz albums under his own name, and studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, where he was introduced to early electronic music at events curated by Pierre Boulez. Jones went on to arrange (and sometimes conduct) songs for Ray Charles, Count Basie, Dinah Washington and others before incorporating synthesizers into his own practice.
In the 1960s, Jones began working as vice president of Mercury Records. He concentrated on music for the small and big screen, eventually composing the soundtracks for nearly 40 films and hundreds of television shows; his first, in 1964, was for Sidney Lumet’s The Pawnbroker. From the late 1960s through the early 1980s, Jones was a prolific performer and producer, releasing solo albums such as Body Heat and The Dude while working with other illustrious artists. And, in 1977, he was chosen to direct the musical supervision of the Lumet-directed musical The Wiz, which introduced him to a young Michael Jackson.
Jones would go on to direct Jackson’s three best-known albums: Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad. Thriller was arguably the most important cultural moment of the 1980s, causing international hysteria and making Jackson the biggest star of the late 20th century. Beyond his work in music, Jones was also a philanthropist and activist, channeling his power into star-studded charity singles such as1985’s “We Are the World,” which raised money to fight hunger in Africa. That year, he began to expand his influence as a culture industry mogul, producing the Steven Spielberg-directed adaptation of The Color Purple (which introduced Oprah Winfrey to the world).
As he continued to branch out into other areas of entertainment, Jones found more success with shows like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which was co-produced by Quincy Jones Entertainment. He also launched a record label, Qwest, and founded Vibe magazine, later assembling the streaming platform Qwest TV with archival concert footage and music documentaries. In 1991, he recorded a collaborative live album with Miles Davis, Miles & Quincy Live at Montreux, which was Davis’ last album before his death. In 2001, he was honored alongside Jack Nicholson, Luciano Pavarotti, Julie Andrews and Van Cliburn at the Kennedy Center Honors.
Jones continued to be a prominent voice (and a great character) in contemporary music. He starred in the music video for Travis Scott and Young Thug’s song “Out West,” and told a story about childhood trauma on The Weeknd’s 2022 album Dawn FM. In 2021, he was inducted into the inaugural class of artists inducted into the Black Music Walk of Fame in Atlanta.
The Jones family said in a statement, “Tonight, it is with full but broken hearts that we must share the news of the passing of our father and brother Quincy Jones. And while this is an incredible loss for our family, we celebrate the great life he lived and know that there will never be another like him. He is truly one of a kind and we will miss him dearly; we are comforted and immensely proud to know that the love and joy, which were the essence of his being, were shared with the world through all that he created. Through his music and his boundless love, Quincy Jones’ heart will beat for eternity.”
