Quincy Jones, the impresario who dominated American music for decades and shaped the careers of stars including Michael Jackson, has died. He was 91 years old.
He was surrounded by family at his home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Bel Air at the time of his death on Sunday, his publicist Arnold Robinson said in a statement, without specifying a cause.
“Tonight, with full but broken hearts, we must share the news of our father and brother Quincy Jones’ passing,” his family said, according to the 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.”
From Frank Sinatra to Michael Jackson, jazz to hip-hop, Jones tracked the ever-fluctuating pulse of pop over his seven-decade-plus career — most often manipulating the beat himself.
A jazz musician, composer and tastemaker, Jones’s studio chops and arranging prowess made him a star in his own right — his music soundtracked the 20th century, and his scores, soundtracks and hits still reverberate today.
But his mark on the business side was indelible as well: Jones became the first Black executive of a major record company, and developed infrastructure within the industry to pave new pathways for Black artists.
“Today, we remember a true giant — a cultural icon whose transformative influence will live on,” posted Reverend Al Sharpton in tribute.
Born in 1933 on the south side of Chicago, Quincy Delight Jones Jr. discovered a knack for the piano at a recreation center and became teenage buddies with Ray Charles.
He briefly studied at the Berklee College of Music in Massachusetts before joining bandleader Lionel Hampton on the road, eventually relocating to New York, where he earned notoriety as an arranger for stars including Duke Ellington, Dinah Washington, Count Basie and, of course, Charles.
He played second trumpet on Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel,” teaming up with Dizzy Gillespie for several years before moving to Paris in 1957, where he studied under the legendary composer Nadia Boulanger.
Jones later expanded into Hollywood, scoring films and television shows.
Among entertainment’s most decorated figures, Jones won virtually every major achievement award, including 28 Grammys.
In 1967, Jones was the first Black composer to be nominated in the original song category of the Oscars, for the film “Banning.”
He 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 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 Jones was perhaps best known for his work with Michael Jackson, producing “Thriller” as well as “Off the Wall” 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.
From music to film, activism to theater, figures from across entertainment paid homage to Jones’s vast legacy upon news of his death.
“Music would not be music without you,” said hip hop pioneer LL Cool J, as playwright and actor Jeremy O. Harris posted that Jones’s “contributions to American culture were limitless.”
“Quincy, my dear Quincy, you too have joined the stars and this morning my heart is heavy,” posted the globetrotting French singer and actor Line Renaud.
“With you, life swung, it jazzed, you were joy and rhythm, you were a genius!”
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