Quincy Jones, musical maestro and leisure titan, dies at 91

Quincy Jones, a maestro of American music and a titan of the leisure business who influenced practically each common style, produced landmark albums and earned a document 80 Grammy Award nominations, died Sunday, his publicist stated.

He was 91.

Jones “handed away peacefully” Sunday evening at his dwelling in Bel Air whereas surrounded by his household, in line with his publicist, Arnold Robinson.

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

In a prolific profession that spanned greater than 70 years, Jones established himself as a behind-the-scenes pressure and a gifted artist in his personal proper, working as an arranger, composer, songwriter and performer.

He left indelible imprints on jazz, pop, hip-hop and dozens of movie and tv soundtracks, working carefully with a few of the most illustrious names within the American songbook, from Depend Basie and Dinah Washington to Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin and Paul Simon.

He produced Michael Jackson’s smash document “Thriller,” in addition to Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of “The Shade Purple” and the NBC sitcom “The Recent Prince of Bel-Air” — tasks that helped bolster his legacy as a hit-maker and media mogul.

Jones acquired quite a few awards and accolades, together with recognition on the John F. Kennedy Middle Honors in 2001, a Nationwide Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama in 2010 and induction into the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame in 2013. In 2021, he joined James Brown and Otis Redding as one of many first three “foundational inductees” of the Black Music & Leisure Stroll of Fame in Atlanta.

“As a grasp inventor of musical hybrids, he has combined pop, soul, hip-hop, jazz, classical, African, and Brazilian music into many dazzling fusions, traversing just about each medium, together with data, reside performances, motion pictures and tv,” Obama stated in his remarks.

Jones gained 28 Grammys, placing him second on the checklist of all-time winners. He nabbed an Emmy in 1977 for writing the theme for the primary episode of the miniseries “Roots” and later acquired the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award on the Oscars in 1994.

Quincy Delight Jones Jr. was born in Chicago on March 14, 1933, the son of Quincy Delight Jones, a semiprofessional baseball participant and carpenter, and Sarah Frances, a financial institution officer and residence complicated supervisor.

Jones was first uncovered to music by his mom, who sang non secular songs. She later suffered a schizophrenic breakdown; Jones’ dad and mom ultimately divorced, and his father remarried.

Within the early Nineteen Forties, Jones and his household relocated to Bremerton, Washington, the place he studied the trumpet and labored with a fledgling pianist/singer by the title of Ray Charles, who was stated to have helped persuade Jones to pursue his curiosity within the musical arts.

Jones studied briefly on the eminent Schillinger Home (now often known as the Berklee Faculty of Music) in Boston within the Nineteen Fifties. He then began touring with the jazz nice Lionel Hampton as a trumpeter and arranger.

In time, he earned a repute as a talented freelance arranger. He labored with Cannonball Adderley, Depend Basie, Clifford Brown, Gigi Gryce (later often known as Basheer Qusim), Oscar Pettiford, Dinah Washington and a bunch of different jazz luminaries.

He toured with Dizzy Gillespie’s massive band in 1956, touring throughout the Center East and South America, and recorded his first album as a bandleader the identical yr.

He labored for a spell on the Barclay document label in Paris after which led an all-star massive band for the European run of Harold Arlen’s “blues opera” in two acts, “Free and Simple.”

Jones returned to the U.S. in 1961, changing into an artists-and-repertoire director for Mercury Information. Three years later, he was elevated to a vp place there, making him one of many first Black People with an executive-level place at a significant U.S. document firm.

Within the Nineteen Sixties, Jones organized and produced albums whereas additionally establishing himself as a go-to composer for movie scores, first with the soundtrack for Sidney Lumet’s “The Pawnbroker” and later for Norman Jewison’s “Within the Warmth of the Night time” and Richard Brooks’ “In Chilly Blood.”

He went on to create modern, fashionable scores for the unique model of “The Italian Job” (1969), the satirical dramedy “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice,” the Steve McQueen thriller “The Getaway” and the Robert Redford caper “The Sizzling Rock.”

Jones’ subsequent cease was the A&M document label, the place he labored from 1969 to 1981, taking a quick hiatus as he rebounded from a mind aneurysm in 1974.

Jones’ medical situation was believed to be so dire that his family and friends started getting ready for his loss of life. He ultimately attended his personal memorial service alongside comic Richard Pryor, actor Sidney Poitier and singer Marvin Gaye.

In 1975, Jones based his personal document label, Qwest Productions, signing artists like Patti Austin and the British group New Order. Three years later, he produced the soundtrack for Lumet’s film musical “The Wiz,” a retelling of “The Wizard of Oz” starring Jackson and Diana Ross.

Jones reached a business zenith because the producer of a trio of Jackson data — “Off the Wall,” “Thriller” and “Dangerous” — that every bought tens of thousands and thousands of copies and electrified the popular culture panorama.

“Thriller” — with its smash-hit singles, electrical mix of genres and MTV-ready aesthetics — rocketed up the gross sales charts. It stays one of many all-time best-selling albums, a landmark that endures regardless of the troubling dimensions of Jackson’s private life.

Jones was a prolific philanthropist. He helped recruit a who’s who of performers — Bob Dylan, Tina Turner, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Surprise — for “We Are the World,” a 1985 charity single produced to lift cash for victims of famine in Ethiopia.

Within the Nineteen Eighties and the Nineteen Nineties, Jones branched off into different media, producing Spielberg’s model of the Alice Walker novel “The Shade Purple” (1985), in addition to the beloved tv present “The Recent Prince of Bel-Air,” starring Will Smith. He additionally launched the music journal Vibe.

In his later years, Jones — by then a legendary determine within the leisure business and past — remained productive within the arts and philanthropic actions.

He printed a memoir, “Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones,” in 2001, and in 2018 he was the topic of a Netflix documentary directed by one in every of his daughters, the actor Rashida Jones.