Quincy Jones leaves behind a large family, including seven children from three marriages and two relationships.
Los Angeles, CA — Quincy Jones, the legendary music producer, composer, and entertainment icon who shaped the sounds of modern pop, jazz, and film, has passed away at 91.
His family confirmed that Jones died peacefully at his Bel Air home on Sunday night, surrounded by family and loved ones.
“Tonight, with full but broken hearts, we must share the news of our father and brother Quincy Jones’ passing,” his family said in a statement. “We celebrate the great life that he lived and know there will never be another like him. Through his music and boundless love, Quincy’s heart will beat for eternity.”
Jones’s career spanned over seven decades, leaving an indelible impact on American music and entertainment. His body of work includes scoring the Oscar-winning film In the Heat of the Night, producing Michael Jackson’s record-shattering Thriller album, and spearheading the 1985 charity anthem “We Are the World,” which united dozens of pop stars to raise funds for famine relief.
Born in Chicago in 1933, Jones’s love for music began at a young age. After moving to Seattle, he took piano lessons and befriended a then-unknown Ray Charles. The friendship would become lifelong, with Jones later producing and arranging for Charles and numerous other jazz icons, including Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Dizzy Gillespie.
Jones’s early career as a teenage jazz musician was marked by a significant encounter with bandleader Lionel Hampton, who invited him to join his band—a move later postponed by Hampton’s wife, urging Jones to complete his education. He took the advice to heart, eventually earning a scholarship to Boston’s Schillinger House (now Berklee College of Music).
In 1961, Jones joined Mercury Records as an artists-and-repertoire director. Three years later, he became the first African American executive in a major record label as vice president of Mercury. His first major pop success came in 1963 with Leslie Gore’s hit “It’s My Party.”
Throughout the 1960s and beyond, Jones expanded his repertoire by composing film scores, notably In Cold Blood and In the Heat of the Night. In 1982, he collaborated with Michael Jackson on Thriller, a landmark album that remains the best-selling record of all time. His partnership with Jackson extended to the charity single “We Are the World” in 1985, which brought together stars like Lionel Richie, Diana Ross, and Bruce Springsteen for famine relief in Africa.
Jones’s reach extended into television with The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, starring his protégé Will Smith, and publishing, with the founding of Vibe magazine in 1993. His later years saw him producing the documentary Keep On Keepin’ On about jazz trumpeter Clark Terry.
Despite a brain aneurysm in 1974 that led him to reduce his workload temporarily, Jones continued working well into his later years. Reflecting on his career in 2014, he remarked to Rolling Stone, “I have been blessed to work with every major music star in the history of America.”
Jones leaves behind a large family, including seven children from three marriages and two relationships. His influence on music, film, and culture endures, and he is remembered as one of the most versatile and influential figures in entertainment history.
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