US music titan Quincy Jones who produced Michael Jackson‘s Thriller album and collaborated with artists including Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles has died aged 91.
Jones’s publicist Arnold Robinson said he died last night surrounded by his family at his home in the Bel Air area of Los Angeles.
The family said in a 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.’
Jones’s final Instagram post yesterday wished his daughter Tina Jones a happy birthday, and featured a photograph of the two smiling together. It said: ‘Happy Birthday to my Tina Beena! So proud to be yo papa! Big hug, I love you eternally.’
Quincy Jones at ‘Singers and Songs Celebrate Tony Bennett’s 80th’ in Hollywood in 2006
Quincy Jones’s final Instagram post yesterday wished his daughter Tina a happy birthday
Quincy Jones with actress daughter Rashida Jones, who played Karen Filippelli in The Office
Jones rose to the top of showbusiness as he became one of the first black executives to thrive in Hollywood and amassing an extraordinary musical catalogue.
He toured with Count Basie and Lionel Hampton, arranged records for Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald and composed soundtracks for Roots and In The Heat Of The Night.
Jones organised then-president Bill Clinton‘s first inaugural celebration and oversaw the all-star recording of We Are The World in 1985 for famine relief in Africa.
Lionel Richie, who co-wrote We Are the World and was among the featured singers on the charity record, would call Jones ‘the master orchestrator’.
Jones will likely be best remembered for his productions with Jackson, with his versatility and imagination helping set off the singer’s talents as he transformed from child star to the ‘King of Pop.’
On such classic tracks as ‘Billie Jean’ and ‘Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough’, Jones and Jackson fashioned a global soundscape out of disco, funk, rock, pop, R&B and jazz and African chants.
For ‘Thriller,’ some of the most memorable touches originated with Jones, who recruited Eddie Van Halen for a guitar solo on the genre-fusing ‘Beat It’ and brought in Vincent Price for a ghoulish voiceover on the title track.
‘Thriller’ sold more than 20 million copies in 1983 alone and has contended with the Eagles’ ‘Greatest Hits 1971-1975’ among others as the best-selling album of all time.
‘If an album doesn’t do well, everyone says ‘it was the producers fault’; so if it does well, it should be your ‘fault’ too,’ Jones said in an interview with the Library of Congress in 2016.
‘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.’
The list of his honours and awards fills 18 pages in his 2001 autobiography ‘Q’, including 27 Grammys at the time (now 28), an honorary Academy Award (now two) and an Emmy for ‘Roots.’
Jones also received France’s Legion d’Honneur, the Rudolph Valentino Award from the Republic of Italy and a Kennedy Center tribute for his contributions to American culture.
He was the subject of a 1990 documentary, ‘Listen Up: The Lives of Quincy Jones’ and a 2018 film by daughter Rashida Jones. His memoir made him a best-selling author.