Quincy Jones

Quincy Delight Jones Jr. was born on Chicago's South Side in 1933 and raised in Seattle, where he began playing trumpet under the guidance of Ray Charles and developed a passion for music. In the early 1950s, he gained prominence as a jazz trumpeter, arranger, and bandleader, touring with Lionel Hampton and Dizzy Gillespie, including State Department-sponsored trips to the Middle East and South America. By 1957, Jones settled in Paris to study composition with Nadia Boulanger and Olivier Messiaen, becoming music director at Barclay Records, the French licensee for Mercury. In 1961, Jones returned to the U.S. as vice president at Mercury Records, the highest-ranking Black executive at a major label at the time, while composing his first film score for The Pawnbroker (1964). He expanded into pop production with Lesley Gore hits like 'It's My Party' and arranged for legends including Frank Sinatra, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, and Sarah Vaughan, earning his first Grammy in 1963 for Basie's 'I Can't Stop Loving You.' The 1960s and 1970s saw Jones score films like In Cold Blood, In the Heat of the Night, and TV themes for Sanford and Son, solidifying his Hollywood breakthrough as the first Black composer embraced by the industry. Jones's peak commercial success came in the 1980s producing Michael Jackson's Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982, best-selling album ever), and Bad (1987), alongside the 1985 charity hit 'We Are the World.' He founded Qwest Records and Productions in 1975, produced The Color Purple (1985, 11 Oscar nominations), and continued innovating with global fusions, co-producing the Montreux Jazz Festival from 1991. A humanitarian and entrepreneur, Jones influenced music, film, TV, and magazines until his death in 2024.