Quincy Jones, who produced some of Michael Jackson’s best-known records and collaborated with superstars such as Frank Sinatra and Count Basie, died on Monday at the age of 91, according to US media.
His spokesman, Arnold Robinson, acknowledged his death in a statement that did not disclose the cause, according to US media.
As a jazz performer, composer, and tastemaker, his studio skills and arranging abilities joined the dots in the twentieth century’s constellation of stars.
Over his seven-decade career, Jones followed the ever-changing pulse of pop, from Frank Sinatra to Michael Jackson, jazz to hip-hop, much of the while modulating the beat himself.
Quincy Delight Jones Jr. was born in 1933 on Chicago’s south side. He developed a talent for the piano at a leisure center and became teenage friends with Ray Charles.
Jones briefly attended Berklee College of Music in Massachusetts before traveling with bandleader Lionel Hampton, eventually settling in New York, where he garnered recognition as an arranger for musicians such as Duke Ellington, Dinah Washington, Count Basie, and, of course, Charles.
He played second trumpet on Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel,” and collaborated with Dizzy Gillespie for several years before heading to Paris in 1957 to study under famed composer Nadia Boulanger.
Jones then ventured into Hollywood, scoring films and television shows.
Jones is among the most distinguished figures in entertainment, having won nearly every major accomplishment award, including 28 Grammys.
Jones was the first Black composer to receive an Oscar nomination in the original song category in 1967, for the film “Banning.”
Jones started a label, founded a hip-hop magazine, and produced the 1990s hit television show “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” discovering Will Smith.
He also wrote his own hits, like the addictively cacophonous “Soul Bossa Nova,” while also arranging at a breathless pace for dozens of stars across the industry.
But he was perhaps best known as the producer of Michael Jackson’s albums “Off the Wall”, “Thriller” and “Bad”.
“You name it, Quincy’s done it. He’s been able to take this genius of his and translate it into any kind of sound that he chooses,” jazz pianist Herbie Hancock told PBS in 2001.
“He is fearless. If you want Quincy to do something, you tell him that he can’t do it. And of course, he will — he’ll do it.”
