Quincy Jones, Music Legend, Passes at age 91

November 4, 2024 15

Most famously known as producer for the Michael Jackson ‘Thriller’ and ‘Bad’ albums, Quincy Jones is a legend in the music industry, for many years. He has been in the music industry for over 70 years, since 1953, aged 20, when traveled with jazz bandleader Lionel Hampton for a European tour of the Hampton orchestra. He said the tour changed his view of racism in the United States:

“It gave you some sense of perspective on past, present, and future. It took the myopic conflict between just black and white in the United States and put it on another level because you saw the turmoil between the Armenians and the Turks, and the Cypriots and the Greeks, and the Swedes and the Danes, and the Koreans and the Japanese. Everybody had these hassles, and you saw it was a basic part of human nature, these conflicts. It opened my soul; it opened my mind.”

In addition to his work as a producer, he also released solo albums that spanned the genres of R&B, soul, funk, jazz, hip hop, pop, and disco. He also composed for numerous films and series, including The Wiz, The Color Purple, Roots, The Italian Job, and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (for which he was also an executive producer).

Starting at an early age, at 14, he started playing with 16-year-old Ray Charles in Seattle, where he also studied music. In his youth, he played on stage with artists like Billie Holiday and Elvis Presley (MAJOR achievements at such a young age, honestly).

In all 70 years of being in the music industry, he had 28 Grammy Awards out of 80 nominations, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Tony Award, 7 Academy Award nominations with no competitive wins, the Academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. and a Grammy Legend Award in 1992 (one of only 15 people ever to receive it). And this doesn’t include any of the special awards like the honorary awards and degrees from Universities, Ministers and other organizations.