Quincy Jones, the legendary musician, composer, producer, and entertainment powerhouse, has died aged 91. His publicist, Arnold Robinson, said he passed away at his home in Bel Air last night (November 3) surrounded by his family.
“Tonight, with full but broken hearts, we must share the news of our father and brother Quincy Jones’ passing,” the family said in a statement. “And although this is an incredible loss for our family, we celebrate the great life that he lived and know there will never be another like him.”
In a career spanning over seven decades, Jones became known as one of the most accomplished and versatile figures in modern music. Moving between big-band jazz, bebop, gospel, blues, soul, funk, R&B, disco, rock, and rap, he produced music for icons such as Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis, Lesley Gore, and Donna Summer. He became one of the most decorated musicians in Grammy Awards history, earning 28 Grammy awards and 80 nominations.
Born in 1933 in Chicago, Jones picked up the trumpet at age 10 and started singing with a local gospel group. At 14, he began playing in a band with 16-year-old Ray Charles, who became an early inspiration for his own music career. After a semester at Seattle University, he attended the Boston-based music school Schillinger House (which later became known as the Berklee School of Music) and went on to tour as a trumpeter, arranger, and pianist with bandleader Lionel Hampton alongside jazz legends Art Farmer and Clifford Brown. He also played second trumpet in the studio band that supported Elvis Presley in his first six television appearances and served as trumpeter and musical director for Dizzy Gillespie.
After moving to Paris in 1957 to work for Barclays Records, the licensee for Mercury in France, Jones studied composition and theory under Nadia Boulanger. In 1961, he became the vice president of Mercury and focused on music for the small and big screen. In 1963, he was invited to score Sidney Lumet’s The Pawnbroker, the first of his nearly 40 major motion picture scores, which include The Italian Job, In the Heat of the Night, The Getaway, and The Color Purple. Before producing three of Michael Jackson’s best-known albums – Off the Wall, Thriller, and Bad – Jones produced the soundtrack for The Wiz, the musical adaptation of The Wizard of Oz that starred Michael Jackson and Diana Ross.
Jones also helmed the USA for Africa session that produced the 1985 benefit single ‘We Are the World’, written by Jackson and Lionel Richie, to raise money for the victims of famine in Ethiopia. Following the success of The Color Purple (which he also produced) that year, he formed the film and TV production company Quincy Jones Entertainment in 1990. Its biggest success was The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which launched the career of Will Smith. In 1991, Jones recorded a live album with Miles Davis, Miles & Quincy Live at Montreux, which was Jones’ last album before his death several months afterward.
Jones founded a record label, Qwest, and the music magazine Vibe, later launching Qwest TV, a streaming service focused on archival concert footage and music documentaries. In 2001, he published his autobiography, Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones, and his life and career were also chronicled in the 2018 documentary Quincy, directed by his daughter Rashida Jones and Al Hicks. Beyond his Grammy Awards, Jones’ numerous awards and accolades include a Kennedy Center Honor in 2001, the National Medal of Arts in 2010, and induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2013. In 2021, he joined James Brown and Otis Redding as part of the inaugural class of artists inducted to the Black Music Walk of Fame in Atlanta.
“He is truly one of a kind and we will miss him dearly; we take comfort and immense pride in knowing that the love and joy, that were the essence of his being, was shared with the world through all that he created,” the Jones family added. “Through his music and his boundless love, Quincy Jones’ heart will beat for eternity.”
