Quincy Jones, musical titan and entertainment icon, dies at 91
Music titan Quincy Jones, a composer and producer who added his tasteful polish to recordings by everyone from Ray Charles to Frank Sinatra to Michael Jackson, has died, according to his representatives. He was 91 years old.
Jones died Sunday night at his home in Bel Air, California, surrounded by his children, siblings and other family members, his publicist told CNN in a statement.
“Tonight, with full but broken hearts, we must share the news of the passing of our father and brother Quincy Jones,” the Jones family said in a statement. “And although this is an incredible loss for our family, we celebrate the great life he lived and we know there will never be another like him.
He is truly one of a kind and we will miss him dearly; love and joy, which were the essence of his being.” Yes, we are comforted and immensely proud to know that the world was shared by all that he created. Through his music and his boundless love, Quincy Jones’ heart will forever beat.
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A noted jazz and pop musician, Jones was also a prolific cross-genre arranger, conductor, record label executive, and civil rights advocate. His talent and drive led to an almost unparalleled career in entertainment.
His long and varied list of credits includes composing the score for the Oscar-winning film, “In the Heat of the Night,” producing Michael Jackson’s blockbuster “Thriller” album, and bringing dozens of pop and rock stars together to record a 1985 charity single. We are the world.”
Born in Chicago to a carpenter father and a mentally ill mother, Jones developed an early interest in music and played the piano.
His family eventually moved to Seattle, Washington, and Jones began taking lessons from famed horn player Clark Terry.
He met and became close friends with a then unknown pianist named Ray Charles. This pair will experience lifelong friendship.
The teenage Jones began performing with a jazz band, and his talent for composing and arranging music caught the attention of bandleader Lionel Hampton.
Jones was just 15 when Hampton invited him to tour with the group, only to be quickly turned down by Hampton’s wife, Gladys.
“I got on the band bus right away, and Gladys got on and said, ‘Hamp, what’s that kid doing on the bus?'” Jones recalled in an interview with the National Endowment for the Arts. “And I got really upset. And she said, ‘Leave him here. Take him back to school. We will call him later after his schooling.”
quincy jones cause of death
Jones heeded her advice, finished school and won a scholarship to Schillinger House (now known as Berklee College of Music) in Boston, from which he graduated in 1951.
After graduation, he went on tour with Hampton and his band.
Thus began a storied career that soon found Jones arranging and recording such luminaries as Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan and his friend Ray Charles. Bandleader Lionel Hampton, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and other legends also tapped the young Jones for their European tours.
In 1961 Jones was hired by Mercury Records as their artist-and-repertoire director. Three years later, he made history when he was promoted to vice president, becoming the first African-American man to hold such a position at a white-owned record label.
He had his first pop hit with Leslie Gore’s 1963 single “It’s My Party,” which went to No. 1. Jones worked with the likes of Frank Sinatra and Peggy Lee during his time with the label.
That same year he scored several Grammy firsts, including opening the Count Basie Band’s song “I Can’t Stop Loving You”.
In the 1960s, Jones began composing musical soundtracks, including “In the Heat of the Night” and “In Cold Blood.”
He worked with A & M Records from 1969 to 1981 and formed his own record label, Qwest.
Jones’ most famous collaboration was in 1982 when he produced Michael Jackson’s best-selling album “Thriller”.
Three years later he enlisted Jackson and several other stars for a charity single, “We Are the World.” In the same year, he made his breakthrough on the big screen by producing the film “The Color Purple” directed by Steven Spielberg.
Jones also had a hit on the small screen and with the television series “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” starring his mentee Will Smith.
Jones entered the publishing world in 1993 when he founded the music/culture magazine Vibe, which sold out in 2006.
A brain aneurysm in 1974 forced Jones to temporarily reduce his workload and focus on spending time with his family.
Over the years he had three marriages and seven children with five different women.
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Jones was married to his high school sweetheart Jerry Caldwell from 1957 to 1966, and the couple had one daughter, Jolie.
He married Swedish model Ulla Andersson in 1967 and had two children, Martina and Quincy Jones III, before divorcing in 1974.
That same year Jones married actress Peggy Lipton, a union that lasted until 1990 and produced two daughters, actresses Rashida Jones and Kidada Jones.
He had a daughter, Rachel, with dancer Carol Reynolds and a daughter – fashion model Kenya Kinski-Jones – with actress Nastassja Kinski.
Jones did not slow down either personally or professionally in his later years. In 2014 he produced the documentary “Keep On Keepin’ On” about his mentor, jazz trumpeter Clark Terry.
Reflecting on his own career that year, Jones told Rolling Stone, “I never thought about it until I got to 80, but I’ve been blessed to work with every major music star in American history—including Louis Armstrong.”
“You can’t plan for it,” Jones said. “You can’t say, ‘Mr. Sinatra, I want to work with you. No. You have to wait until he calls you.'”