Quincy JonesThe music giant who did it all as a record producer, film composer, multi-genre artist, entertainment executive and humanitarian has died. He was 91 years old.

Jones died Sunday night at his Bel-Air home surrounded by his family, his publicist Arnold Robinson said.

“Tonight, with full but broken hearts, we must share the news of the passing of our father and brother, Quincy Jones,” his family said in a statement. “And although this is an incredible loss for our family, we celebrate the wonderful life he lived and know there will never be anyone like him.”

Jones received the Motion Picture Academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1995, the Grammy Legend Award in 1991, and 28 Grammys from a top 80 nominations of all time. He would be given an honorary Oscar at the Governors Awards on November 17.

Survivors include actress Rashida Jones, one of his seven children.

Jones produced Michael Jackson’s best-selling albums in a remarkable career that spanned more than 60 years. Outside the Wall, Income And Bad; bought the rights to the novel Color PurpleShe starred as a young Oprah Winfrey in Steven Spielberg’s 1985 film adaptation, for which she received three Oscar nominations; Led the historic recording sessions for the 1985 charity single “We are the World” best-selling single of all time; and produced Lesley Gore’s 1963 chart-topping hit “It’s My Party.”

The first US film Jones recorded was that of Sidney Lumet. Loan shark (1964) and scored two landmark films released in 1967: the Best Picture Oscar winner. In the Heat of the Night and Truman Copote In cold blood.

HE He talked about his first visit to Hollywood with TRSeth Abramovitch in May 2021.

“I was wearing my favorite suit and the producer came to meet me at Universal,” he said. “He stopped in his tracks — complete shock — and turned back and said to (music supervisor) Joe Gershenson: ‘You didn’t tell me Quincy Jones was black.’ They did not use Black composers in films. They used only three-syllable Eastern European names: Bronislaw Kaper, Dimitri Tiomkin. “He was very, very racist.”

For television, Jones composed the theme songs for series such as 1969-71. The Bill Cosby Show, iron side And Sanford and Son and has executive produced series such as: The Fresh Prince of Bel-AirWhere he discovered Will Smith and At homeStarring LL Cool J.

He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2013 and produced the documentary the following year. keep going keep goingIt’s about jazz legend Clark Terry and his mentorship of a blind piano prodigy.

Jones survived two brain aneurysms in 1974. After the first one, he wrote in his 2008 book: The Complete Quincy Jones: My Journey and My Passions: Photos, Letters, Memoirs, and More from Q’s Personal Collection“It didn’t look like I was going to make it, so my friends planned a memorial… They already had a concert.”

Accompanied by his neurologist, he attended the ceremony at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, including Richard Pryor, Marvin Gaye, Sarah Vaughan and Sydney Poitier He talked about its size.

Quincy Delight Jones Jr. was born in Chicago on March 14, 1933, to his parents, Quincy Delight Jones Sr. He was born to and Sarah Frances Jones. His mother worked at a bank before being institutionalized for schizophrenia when Quincy was 7; his father was a carpenter who played semi-professional baseball. He grew up alongside his only blood brother, Lloyd.

Quincy Sr. divorced Sarah shortly after she was hospitalized and remarried a woman named Elvera, with whom he had three children. Later, for a family of eight siblings, they had three more of their own.

“We were in the heart of the largest Black ghetto in Chicago during the Depression,” Jones recalled in an interview with Success Academy, “and every block was the breeding ground for every gangster in America, Black and white. So we were right there with all of them.”

His father moved the family to Bremerton, Washington, in 1943, where he accepted a new job. They later moved to Seattle, where Quincy Jr. attended Garfield High School, igniting his passion for art by studying music composition and learning to play the trumpet. This kept him out of trouble.

While still a teenager, Jones met 16-year-old Ray Charles; This meeting was filmed in the 2004 Jamie Foxx movie. ray – became a great inspiration, teacher and friend, and they worked together on various musical projects.

Jones attended Seattle University, studied music and played in the college band—Clint Eastwood was also a student at the time—but only completed one semester before transferring to Berklee College of Music in Boston on a scholarship. Charles left college to tour with Lionel Hampton as a trumpeter and arranger for some of the leading talents of the era, including Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Duke Ellington, and Gene Krupa. He won his first Grammy award for his arrangement of Count Basie’s song “I Can’t Stop Loving You”.

Jones signed as an artist with ABC Paramount Records in 1956 and moved to Paris a year later; there he studied with music theorist Nadia Boulanger and became musical director of the Les Disques Barclay label. He toured Europe working as musical director on composer Harold Arlen’s Free and Easy tour and formed a group called The Jones Boys, consisting of jazz artists from that show. They got great reviews but money was tight.

“We had the best jazz band on the planet, and yet we were literally starving,” he said. Musician magazine. “That’s when I discovered there was music and there it was music business. If I were to survive, I would have to learn the difference between the two.”

Jones began working with Frank Sinatra in 1958, collaborating on a benefit show that Jones arranged. Sinatra hired him to arrange the album for his 1964 album It Can Also Be a Swing with the Count Basie Orchestra and Jones worked on the live set in 1966 Sinatra in the SandsIt included his famous arrangement of “Fly Me to the Moon” (which was the first recording played by astronaut Buzz Aldrin when he touched down on the moon’s surface in 1969).

He collaborated with Sinatra over the years through various TV shows and other recordings, which led to concerts for other artists such as Billy Eckstine and Peggy Lee.

“The man had no grey. He was either black or white,” Jones said of Sinatra in 2001. Question: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones. “If he loved you, there was nothing in the world he wouldn’t do for you. If he didn’t love you, shame on you. I know he loved me too. In all the years we worked together, we never had a contract; it was just a handshake.”

Jones’ solo albums have earned him acclaim; Walking in Space, Gula Matari, Smackwater Jack, You got it bad girl, Body Temperature, Soft Frenzy And I Heard That!

The song “Soul Bossa Nova”, which he wrote and produced in 1962, was used in the 1998 French World Cup and was featured in Woody Allen’s song. Take the Money and Run (1969) and Austin Powers movies.

Irving Green, president and founder of Mercury Records, helped Jones obtain a music director position at the label. He was promoted to vice president in 1961, becoming the first African-American to reach such a high post at a major record company.

During his time as a manager, he moonlighted as a film composer and scored critically acclaimed films. Pawnshop For Lumet, this led to him leaving Mercury for Los Angeles and further work in the field.

In 1965, he composed the music for Sydney Pollack’s first film. Fine ThreadStarring Poitier. Jones would work on other films as well. Walk, Don’t Run (1966), Carl Reiner‘s Enter with a smile. (1967), Paul Mazursky‘s Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice (1969), Italian Job (1969), Cactus Flower (1969), They call me Mr. Tibbs! (1970) and Escape (1972).

In 1968, Jones became the first African-American to receive two Oscar nominations in the same year. She and songwriting partner Bob Russell (they were the first African Americans to be nominated for best original song) were honored for “The Eyes of Love” from Robert Wagner’s romantic drama. Prohibitionand original score In cold blood was also nominated. (In the second film, Jones listened to interrogation tapes of the hoodlums who committed the murders for inspiration.)

Jones became the first African-American to be named musical director and conductor of the Oscars in 1971 and served as executive producer for the Academy Awards in 1996. The Hersholt award marked another first for an African-American.

With seven Oscar nominations, he is tied with sound designer Willie D. Burton for the most African Americans.

In 1975, Jones founded Qwest Productions, where he arranged and produced certified albums by Sinatra and other major pop stars. Produced the soundtrack Wiz (1978), starring Jackson and Diana Ross.

Jones’ 1981 album Buddyproduced numerous hit singles; these include “Ai No Corrida” (a remake of a song by Chaz Jankel), “Just Once” and “One Hundred Ways”; The last two feature James Ingram on lead vocals and are Ingram’s first hits.

In 1980, he founded the Qwest Records label as a joint venture with Warner Music Group and assembled a roster that included an eclectic group of musicians, including British post-punk band New Order, Joy Division, Ingram, Sinatra, Tevin Campbell, Andre Crouch. , Patti Austin, Siedah Garrett, Gregory Jefferson and Justin Warfield.

For Color PurpleJones was nominated for best picture, original score, and original song (three of the series’ 11 Academy Award nominations), but he and the film went home empty-handed on Oscar night. (He was also the producer of the 2023 production.)

Jones’ social activism was an important part of his life. He supported Martin Luther King Jr. and later Jesse Jackson’s PUSH movement in the 1960s, and worked with Bono on a number of humanitarian projects, particularly to eliminate Third World debts. He founded an organization called the Quincy Jones Listen Up Foundation, which builds homes in Africa and connects young people to learning music and culture.

He used his influences to attract musical superstars of the day to A&M Studios in Los Angeles in 1985, leading the “We Are the World” session by requesting that participating artists “check your ego at the door.” The song raised more than $63 million for famine relief in Ethiopia.

In 1990, he founded Quincy Jones Entertainment in a joint venture with Time Warner. QJE produced the NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-AirAs well as UPN, which put Smith on the map as an actor and performer. At home and Fox Crazy TVamong others.

In 1993, QDE founded Quincy Jones/David Salzman Entertainment; has produced films, TV shows, and edutainment, and published two magazines. VIBRATION And Rotate.

Jones, who said he spoke 26 languages ​​and could write in seven, was married to his high school sweetheart, Jeri Caldwell, between 1957-66, to actress Ulla Andersson between 1967-74, and to TV series actress Peggy Lipton. Mod Team (Rashida’s mother) Between 1974-90. Of his seven children, one was with dancer Carol Reynolds and the other was with actress Nastassja Kinski.

His family requests donations in his memory Jazz Foundation of America.

“When life becomes too much, we need to take some time and allow the soul to catch up with the body,” he wrote. Full Quincy Jones. “Go out and find a song you love, a poem that touches your heart, and take the time to let the whisper of heaven’s voice come to your mind. “Every day you wake up and you’re still above ground, that should be the only reason you’re happy.”