He was known in the music industry as a musical genius who was a producer and arranger for stars like Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra, and Aretha Franklin. With his ability to combine jazz, rhythm and blues, and classical orchestration, Quincy Jones was smashing barriers for African Americans.
Earlier this month, the world mourned the death of Quincy Jones. He died on November 3, 2024, in his home in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles at the age of 91.
I could easily tell you about his seven-decade career that ranged from Sinatra, who bestowed on him his nickname, “Q.” to the rap star Tupac Shakur. Or how he helped shape the recordings of singers Sammy Davis Jr., Barbra Streisand, Stevie Wonder, John Legend, Andy Williams, and Sonny Bono.
Everyone knows he was the mastermind behind Michael Jackson’s transition into his solo career, producing the albums “Off the Wall” and “Thriller,” the top-selling pop release of all time. Later, he collaborated on “Bad” and his final work, “This Is It.” We can’t forget about him producing the all-star charity song “We Are the World” in 1985, which raised $50 million for African famine relief.
As a young trumpeter, Jones played in juke joints with Ray Charles as a teen and went on to study in Paris, and later in life, becoming the first African American to be a senior executive at a major music label — Mercury Records. Jones was the first of many.
In the mid-1960s, Mr. Jones became the first African American to score major Hollywood films. He was the first African American to produce the Academy Awards in 1996, with Whoopi Goldberg as host.
He founded a media empire that included his record label (Qwest Records), a film and TV production company (QDE Entertainment), and the Black music magazine Vibe, respectively.
Mr. Jones received seven Oscar nominations, won the Motion Picture Academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1995, and was a Kennedy Center honoree in 2001.
I can’t help but remind you of some of his accolades: doing the score for the all-Black musical “The Wiz;” sharing an Emmy Award for his score of the TV miniseries “Roots;” or producing “The Color Purple” and the “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”
Then rapper Ice T had the pleasure of working with Jones on the album “Back on the Block” (1989), which, among other Grammys, “Back on the Block” won Album of the Year and the inaugural award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo.
On the track “Jazz Corner of the World,” Jones combined rappers Kool Moe Dee and Big Daddy Kane with solos by jazz eminences Dizzy Gillespie, James Moody, Miles Davis, George Benson, and a scatting Ella Fitzgerald, showing he is the master arranger.
“Quincy knows how to pull it out of different people,” rapper Melle Mel was quoted as saying in Mr. Jones’s memoir, “Q.” “It’s tribal. He understands everybody’s talking drum. He’s the only guy in the world who can do that, who can reach all the way back to Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald and connect them to the rappers.”
So, it goes without saying that Quincy Jones is one of a kind – the master of music!
Quincy Jones was laid to rest last week (one week after his passing) at a private, intimate ceremony where Mr. Jones’ seven children, his brother, two sisters, and immediate family members were in attendance.
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