Skip to main content
BoomMag: Readers and Fans
Advertise With Us Newsletter

WLT Report WLT Report

Advertise With Us Newsletter
We may receive compensation from affiliate partners for some links on this site. Read our full Disclosure here.

Legendary Music Titan Who Worked With Sinatra & Michael Jackson, Dead at 91: “Incredible Loss”

“Fly Me To The Moon” was his arrangement.  “The Color Purple” was partly his creation.  Michael Jackson, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra — Quincy Jones worked with all the greats.  But this morning his family shared the news that their “father and brother” had passed away at 91 years of age.

Here’s a report on the breaking news of Quincy Jones’ passing from Sky News:

Quincy Jones produced, worked on, and created some of the most iconic musical compositions of all time, and according to an article on Fox News he was the first black executive of a major record company, becoming the Vice President of Mercury Records in 1961!

Jones, who was the first popular conductor-arranger to record with a Fender bass in the mid 1950s, worked with many iconic artists ranging from Frank Sinatra to Ray Charles to Michael Jackson.

He produced and conducted the best-selling single of all time in “We Are The World,” and three of Jackson’s albums, including the all-time best-selling album, Thriller. He also worked with Sinatra for three years as a conductor and arranger, and created the famous arrangement of “Fly Me To The Moon.”

Jones began as vice president of Mercury Records in 1961, making him the first Black executive of a major record company, and held that position for a few years before entering the film industry, where he also became very successful. He co-produced “The Color Purple” in 1985 with Steven Spielberg, earning 11 Oscar nominations, and he helped launch the hit series “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” in 1991 as an executive producer.

ADVERTISEMENT

Jones also formed Quincy Jones Entertainment, a co-venture with Time Warner, Inc., and the Quincy Jones Media Group during his decades in the entertainment industry.

Jones’ work earned him hundreds of awards, including an Emmy, seven Oscar nominations, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, 28 Grammy Awards and 80 nominations, and N.A.R.A.S.’ prestigious Trustees’ Award and The Grammy Living Legend Award. He has also been awarded a variety of international awards and honorary doctorates.

He was named a Kennedy Center Honoree in 2001, recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts as a Jazz Master in 2008 and was bestowed the National Medal of Arts – America’s highest artistic honor – in 2010.

For a taste of who this man was, check out this clip of Jones talking about the best advice he ever got.  There are lessons here for the rest of us.

According to a story in the Associated Press, Jones grew up running with gangs in Chicago, and through his creative pursuits ended up keeping the company of presidents and world leaders.  As I scroll through the news of his passing, I am struck — not so much by the people he was able to rub shoulders with — but by the high regard they universally held him in.

Quincy Jones, the multi-talented music titan whose vast legacy ranged from producing Michael Jackson’s historic “Thriller” album to writing prize-winning film and television scores and collaborating with Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles and hundreds of other recording artists, has died at 91.

Jones rose from running with gangs on the South Side of Chicago to the very heights of show business, becoming one of the first Black executives to thrive in Hollywood and amassing an extraordinary musical catalog that includes some of the richest moments of American rhythm and song. For years, it was unlikely to find a music lover who did not own at least one record with his name on it, or a leader in the entertainment industry and beyond who did not have some connection to him.

Jones kept company with presidents and foreign leaders, movie stars and musicians, philanthropists and business leaders. He toured with Count Basie and Lionel Hampton, arranged records for Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, composed the soundtracks for “Roots” and “In the Heat of the Night,” organized President Bill Clinton’s first inaugural celebration and oversaw the all-star recording of “We Are the World,” the 1985 charity record for famine relief in Africa.

Lionel Richie, who co-wrote “We Are the World” and was among the featured singers, would call Jones “the master orchestrator.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Check out this crazy clip of Quincy Jones trying to reassure Bob Dylan.

According to the Fox News story I referenced above, Quincy Jones died surrounded by his children and siblings at home, and his family is requesting privacy “in this time of great mourning”.


 

Join the conversation!

Please share your thoughts about this article below. We value your opinions, and would love to see you add to the discussion!

log in

Forgot password?

reset password

Back to
log in
Leave a comment
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for sharing!
We invite you to become a WLT Report insider. Sign up for our free email newsletter, and we'll make sure to keep you in the loop.