Remembering Producer and Music Legend Quincy Jones

Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (1933–2024), legendary music producer, composer, arranger, and movie producer who worked with artists as diverse as Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra, Dizzy Gillespie, and LL Cool J, died peacefully at the age of 91 on November 3, 2024. He was surrounded by family at his Bel Air, California, home. Jones’s publicist, Arnold Robinson, shared the family’s statement.

“Tonight, with full but broken hearts, we must share the news of our father and brother Quincy Jones’ passing. 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.”

“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. Through his music and his boundless love, Quincy Jones’ heart will beat for eternity.”

Perhaps best known as the producer of Michael Jackson’s Thriller album, he also produced Jackson’s Bad and Off the Wall albums. His career spanned seven decades of crafting musical hits for a list of artists that’s a who’s who of American music for the past half century. The next time you hear Frank Sinatra’s “Fly Me to the Moon,” Ray Charles’s “In the Heat of the Night,” or Michael Jackson’s “Beat It,” you’ll be reminded that you’re hearing Q’s handiwork.

Other artists who benefited from his musical direction and production include these and many more:

Dizzy Gillespie

Duke Ellington

Snoop Dogg

LL Cool J

Tony Bennett

Lesley Gore

Chaka Khan

Queen Latifah

Quincy Jones’s Accolades

Quincy Jones’s list of firsts and awards is so amazing that it’s hard to grasp, much less list them all. Not only did he play with some of the industry’s greatest jazz legends as a trumpeter (as a teenager, he dropped out of Berklee to play with Lionel Hampton’s band), but he also scored and produced music for television, films, music videos, and stage productions as well as being an artist himself. Here are a few of his accolades.

During his seven-decade career, he was nominated for 80 Grammy Awards and won 28 Grammy Awards in categories including Best Instrumental Jazz Performance for Walking in Space (1969), Producer of the Year (1981), and Album of the Year for Michael Jackson’s Thriller (1983).

His own album, Back on the Block, released in 1989, won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1991. It ended up winning a total of seven Grammy Awards and featured a wide range of artists including Ella Fitzgerald, Tina Turner, Miles Davis, Joe Zawinul, Ice-T, Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, George Benson, Luther Vandross, Dionne Warwick, Barry White, Chaka Khan, Take 6, Bobby McFerrin, Al Jarreau, James Ingram, Ray Charles, and a young Tevin Campbell. My dear departed friend Bruce Swedien, who worked with Q for most of his life, won the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical, for his engineering work on the album.

He won two Academy Honorary Awards.

He won an Emmy for Roots.

He received Kennedy Center Honors for contributions to American culture.

He produced The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, casting a young, black rapper named Will Smith in the title role.

He was promoted to Vice President at Mercury Records in the early ’60s.

He was the first black music director for the Academy Awards ceremony.

The first movie he co-produced received 11 Oscar nominations in 1986. The film? The Color Purple.

He was the musical supervisor and music producer for The Wiz.

He composed over 30 film scores and wrote the themes for Sanford and Son, The Bill Cosby Show, Roots, The Color Purple, In the Heat of the Night, and In Cold Blood.

Time named him one of the most influential jazz musicians of the 20th century.

He conducted and co-produced (with Michael Omartian) the charity single and video “We Are the World” in 1985. Lionel Richie, who co-wrote the song with Michael Jackson, called Jones “the master orchestrator.”

He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2013 as the winner of the Ahmet Ertegun Award.

He received the Grammy Legend Award in 1991 and the Grammy Trustees Award in 1989.

Quincy Jones on Producing

In an interview with the Library of Congress, Jones said of the role of a producer, “The tracks don’t just all of a sudden appear. The producer has to have the skill, experience, and ability to guide the vision to completion.”

Quincy Jones on Life

Quoting from his Facebook post on March 14, 2024:

“This life that I’ve been blessed to live is not one that I take for granted. As a little black boy growing up in the South Side of Chicago, making it to 91 wasn’t even a dream because it never seemed possible. But as I stand before you today, I am grateful for every person who lent me a shoulder to stand on... From Count Basie to Nadia Boulanger to Joseph Powe to all of the individuals who told me I was worth another day.”

“To all-a-y’awl out there, never underestimate the positive impact that you can have on a kid’s life because it may just be the difference between them making it to 19 or 91. Thank you all for the beautiful birthday wishes & I pray that I can continue to pass down what the great’s [sic] have given to me!! Keep on keepin’ on... U know I am!”

In a Facebook post from 2016, Quincy revealed this philosophy of life:

“Excellence isn’t an act, it’s a habit that you create... As my father always used to say, ‘Once a task has just begun, never leave it ’til it’s done. Be the labor great or small, do it well or not at all.’”

My Personal Encounter

I was at Capitol Studios in Hollywood in 2019 for an event sponsored by AKG. The guests of honor were Jacob Collier and Quincy Jones. After an intimate performance by Collier, who credited Quincy Jones as being “like a godfather to me” to the dozens of attendees, Quincy graciously entertained fans and admirers, including me. I had known he would be in attendance and brought my Back on the Block CD that I had played countless times since I purchased it in 1989. Listening to any of Quincy’s records was like a masterclass in production. It was such an honor to shake his hand and express my appreciation for his lifetime of musical excellence.

My personal copy of Quincy’s album Back on the Block that I bought when it dropped in 1989. Quincy graciously signed it for me when I met him in 2019. It’s inscribed: “To my brother from another mother. Lynn <3”

This was such an honor for me, meeting Quincy at Capitol Studios on November 12, 2019, almost five years ago.

Sources:

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/quincy-jones-mn0000378624

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quincy_Jones

https://www.npr.org/2024/11/04/834546599/quincy-jones-pop-mastermind-thriller-producer-dies

https://apnews.com/article/quincy-jones-dead-a9e31c7e39c448d8971519f47a22dd21

https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/quincy-jones-dies-at-91/3424855

https://news.sky.com/story/quincy-jones-music-titan-who-worked-with-michael-jackson-and-frank-sinatra-has-died-13248095

https://www.billboard.com/lists/quincy-jones-film-tv-scores-best/roots-the-saga-of-an-american-family-1977

https://www.vogue.co.uk/arts-and-lifestyle/article/jacob-collier-interview

https://achievement.org/achiever/quincy-jones

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