Quincy Jones, a unique agent of American entertainment, who crossed the generations and who worked with stars from Frank Sinatra and memorably Michael Jackson, has died aged 91.
Jones was arguably best known for producing albums Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad for Jackson in the 1980s, which made the singer the biggest pop star of all time.
Jones also produced music for Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, Donna Summer and many, many others and was also a successful composer of dozens of film scores, having also had numerous chart hits under his own name.
Jones was a bandleader in big band jazz, an arranger and a multi-instrumentalist, most proficiently on trumpet and piano. His TV and film production company, founded in 1990, had major success with the sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air launching the career of Will Smith.
Jones is third only to Beyoncé and Jay-Z for having the most Grammy award nominations of all time with 80 and is the awards’ third most-successful winner, with 28.
He was a producer and arranger for artists including Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington, Peggy Lee, Sarah Vaughan and Sammy Davis Jr.
He also began scoring films, his credits eventually including The Italian Job, In the Heat of the Night, The Getaway and as a producer in 1985's The Color Purple for which he was nominated for three Oscars.
His biggest success was with Michael Jackson. The album Thriller remains the biggest seller of all time, with Jones’ versatility displayed in the contrasting styles between Off the Wall and Bad.
Quincy Jones (Photo NARAS)
Jones said when Jackson died in 2009: “I’ve lost my little brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him.”
He and Jackson along with Lionel Richie also oversaw the charity title We Are the World, a single that raised funds for famine relief in Ethiopia in 1985.
After the success of The Color Purple at the box office and critically in 1985, he formed the film and TV production company Quincy Jones Entertainment in 1990.
His biggest screen hit was The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which ran for 148 episodes and launched the career of Will Smith.
Jones lived a chequered life and narrowly avoided that life being cut short by Charles Manson’s cult in 1969, having planned to go to Sharon Tate’s house on the night of the infamous murders there as Jones forgot the appointment.
