The legendary producer and composer Quincy Jones has died at 91 years old. No cause of death has been revealed at this time. The New York Times reports:
Quincy Jones, one of the most powerful forces in American popular music for more than half a century, died on Sunday in California. He was 91.
His death was confirmed in a statement by his publicist, Arnold Robinson, that did not mention a cause. The statement said that he had died peacefully at his home in Bel Air.
Mr. Jones began his career as a jazz trumpeter and was later in great demand as an arranger, writing for the big bands of Count Basie and others; as a composer of film music; and as a record producer. But he may have made his most lasting mark by doing what some believe to be equally important in the ground-level history of an art form: the work of connecting.
Beyond his hands-on work with score paper, he organized, charmed, persuaded, hired and validated. Starting in the late 1950s, he took social and professional mobility to a new level in Black popular art, eventually creating the conditions for a great deal of music to flow between styles, outlets and markets. And all of that could be said of him even if he had not produced Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” the best-selling album of all time.
Read more at NYT. Beyond Thriller, his many achievements also included producing, arranging, and conducting over 40 stars for “We Are the World,” the 1985 charity single that raised money for famine relief in Ethiopia. As of today, it’s the eight best-selling single of all time. The song is also the subject of the recently-released, Bao Nguyen-directed documentary The Greatest Night in Pop, which is streaming on Netflix now. The 2018 Quincy Jones documentary Quincy (co-directed by Alan Hicks and Quincy’s daughter Rashida Jones) is currently streaming on Netflix as well.
Tributes to Quincy have poured in from those who knew him and looked up to him, including Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, The Weeknd, New Order, Dr. Dre, and more. Read those here.
Rest in peace, Quincy.
Quincy Jones RIP.
Here he is reassuring an uncomfortable Dylan through his We Are The World performance. pic.twitter.com/9VB7SZDrBb
— Iffy Pop (@iffypopireland) November 4, 2024