Quincy Jones FILE PHOTO: Producer Quincy Jones attends the Annie Leibovitz Book Launch presented by Vanity Fair, Leon Max and Benedikt Taschen during Vanity Fair Campaign Hollywood at Chateau Marmont on February 26, 2014 in Los Angeles, California.(Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images) (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
(Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
ByNatalie Dreier, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
The Grammy award-winning songwriter and producer of some of the most iconic songs of several generations - from “It’s My Party” to “Fly Me to the Moon” to “Thriller” to “We Are the World” has died.
Arnold Robinson, Jones’ publicist, said he was surrounded by family when he died Sunday night at his home in Bel Air, The Associated Press reported. A cause of death was not released.
“Tonight, with full but broken hearts, we must share the news of our father and brother Quincy Jones’ passing,” the family said in a statement. “And although this is an incredible loss for our family, we celebrate the great life that he lived and know there will never be another like him.”
Jones was born in Chicago to a father who was a carpenter and a mother who sang hymns around the house, the AP reported. But his mother also suffered from mental illness and had to be institutionalized, he said.
“There are two kinds of people; those who have nurturing parents or caretakers, and those who don’t. Nothing’s in between,” Jones once told Oprah Winfrey.
He said that his mother’s institutionalization made the world seem “senseless” to him. He escaped to the streets of Chicago and found a connection to gangs, stealing and fighting in the city.
“They nailed my hand to a fence with a switchblade, man,” he told the AP in 2018.
Thanks to a neighbor with a piano, he learned to play music.
He and his father eventually moved to Seattle.
Jones said he and a group of friends broke into a recreation center and he noticed a piano on the center’s stage.
“I went up there, paused, stared, and then tinkled on it for a moment,” Jones shared in his autobiography, the AP reported. “That’s where I began to find peace. I was 11. I knew this was it for me. Forever.”
He started taking lessons from Clark Terry and eventually a then-unknown Ray Charles, CNN reported.
Jones started performing with jazz bands and started composing and arranging music there. He was only 15 when bandleader Lionel Hampton invited him to tour with his group. Hampton’s wife said the teenager was too young.
“I got on the band bus right away, and Gladys got on and said, “Hamp, what’s that child doing on the bus?” Jones told the National Endowment for the Arts, CNN reported. “And I was so upset. And she said, ‘Get him off here. Make him go back to school. We’ll call him later when he gets his schooling.’”
Jones listened and he completed school, earning a scholarship to then-Schillinger House, now Berklee College of Music, in Boston. In 1951 and claimed his spot with Hampton and his band.
He started arranging and recording with Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughn, Dizzy Gillespie and Charles.
Jones was the first Black man to be a vice president for Mercury Records, CNN reported. The label had hired him as an artists-and-repertoire director in 1961 but promoted him to the vice president role within three years.
He had his first pop hit in 1963 - Leslie Gore’s “It’s My Party” while also working with Frank Sinatra and Peggy Lee.
He scored “I Can’t Stop Loving You” for the Count Basie Band the same year, which won Jones his first Grammy.
The 1960s also saw Jones starting to compose soundtracks for such films as “In The Heat of the Night” and “In Cold Blood,” CNN reported.
He eventually worked with A&M Records before creating his own Qwest label.
In 1971, Jones was the first Black musical director for the Oscars.
He also created Quincy Jones Entertainment in a partnership with Time Warner, the AP reported.
Jones’ possibly biggest and most well-known project was producing Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” in 1982.
Three years later, Jones asked Jackson and other stars to come together for “We Are the World” to help combat famine in Africa. He and Lionel Richie produced a second version in 2010 for Haitian earthquake relief.
Over his long career, Jones won 28 Grammy Awards, USA Today reported.
He was listed as either a producer, composer, conductor, arranger or performer on more than 400 albums and composed about 35 film scores.
Jones didn’t just focus on music.
He produced the television show “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” the film “The Color Purple and founded the magazine Vibe in 1993. He sold the magazine in 2006, CNN and USA Today reported.
Jones had health problems over the years, including a brain aneurysm in 1974 that made him slow down a bit and spend time with his family. In the 1980s he suffered from a deep depression.
Jones had been married three times and had seven children with five women.
He married his high school sweetheart Jeri Caldwell in 1957 and had a daughter Jolie.
The couple divorced in 1966.
The next year he married Swedish model Ulla Andersson and the couple had two children Martina and Quincy the III. They divorced in 1974.
The same year he married Peggy Lipton and had two daughters, both actresses, Rashida and Kidada. Jones and Lipton divorced in 1990.
Jones had a daughter Rachel with dancer Carol Reynolds and another daughter Kenya with actress Nastassja Kinski.
Jones leaves behind seven children, his brother and two sisters, the AP reported.
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Through the years CIRCA 1950: Jazz trumpeter, composer, arranger and producer Quincy Jones poses for a portrait circa 1950. (Photo by Donaldson Collection/Getty Images) (Donaldson Collection/Getty Images)
Through the years Jazz musician Quincy Delight Jones Jr. with his Big Band. Konzerthaus. Vienna. About 1960. Photograph by Franz Hubmann. (Photo by Franz Hubmann/Imagno/Getty Images) (brandstaetter images/Getty Images)
Through the years Quincy Jones poses for a studio portrait in 1962 in the United States. (Photo by Gilles Petard/Redferns) (Gilles Petard/Redferns)
Through the years Eighteen-year-old Lesley Gore (1946-2015) and producer Quincy Jones for Mercury Records on April 11, 1964, in New York, New York. Gore was best known for her hit "It's My Party, " released in Spring 1963. (Photo by William "PoPsie" Randolph/Getty Images) (Icon and Image/Getty Images)
Through the years LOS ANGELES - JANUARY 26: The American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA) 4th Annual Entertainer of the Year Awards. This CBS television special broadcast on Saturday, January 26, 1974. Pictured from left is Quincy Jones and Roberta Flack. (Photo by CBS via Getty Images) (CBS Photo Archive/CBS via Getty Images)
Through the years LOS ANGELES - 1981: Musician, composer and producer Quincy Jones poses for a portrait in 1981 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Bobby Holland/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images) (Bobby Holland/Getty Images)
Through the years LOS ANGELES - FEBRUARY 24: 24th Annual Grammy Awards. Broadcast February 24, 1982, at the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, California. Pictured is Quincy Jones, backstage. (Photo by CBS via Getty Images) (CBS Photo Archive/CBS via Getty Images)
Through the years Michael Jackson, Peggy Lipton and Quincy Jones during Steve Ross And Courtney Sale Wedding Reception, 1982 at The Plaza Hotel in New York, New York, United States. (Photo by Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images) (Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty)
Through the years Michael Jackson & Quincy Jones at the Grammys in Los Angeles, California on February 28, 1984 (Photo by Barry King/WireImage) (Barry King/WireImage)
Through the years NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 21: Producer/arranger Quincy Jones (L), and singer and FSSA founder Tony Bennett attend the ribbon cutting for the new permanent site at the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts on September 21, 2009 in New York City. (Photo by Gary Gershoff/Getty Images for Exploring the Arts) (Gary Gershoff)
Through the years ANAHEIM, CA - JANUARY 14: Musician Quincy Jones attends the 2010 NAMM Show - Day 1 at the Anaheim Convention Center on January 14, 2010 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images for NAMM) (David Livingston)
Through the years HOLLYWOOD - MARCH 07: Producer Quincy Jones arrives at the 82nd Annual Academy Awards held at Kodak Theatre on March 7, 2010 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images) (Jason Merritt/Getty Images)
Through the years NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 20: (L-R) The Edge and Quincy Jones attend the Happy Hearts Fund's Land of Dreams Thailand at the Metropolitan Pavilion on November 20, 2010 in New York City. (Photo by Roger Kisby/Getty Images) (Roger Kisby/Getty Images)
Through the years WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 02: U.S. President Barack Obama (R) presents the 2010 National Medal of Arts to musician Quincy Jones during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House, on March 2, 2011 in Washington, DC. President Obama presented the 2010 National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medal to 20 honorees. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images) (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
Through the years NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 28: Quincy Jones speaks at the TFI Special Legacy Celebration Quincy Jones Tribute At The 2011 Tribeca Film Festival at Hiro Ballroom at The Maritime Hotel on April 28, 2011 in New York City. (Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images) (Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images)
Through the years BEVERLY HILLS, CA - DECEMBER 09: Producer Quincy Jones (L) and singer Andrea Bocelli attend the launch of The Andrea Bocelli Foundation at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on December 9, 2011 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by John Sciulli/Getty Images for Andrea Bocelli Foundation) (John Sciulli)
Through the years PARK CITY, UT - JANUARY 20: Actress Rashida Jones (L) and producer Quincy Jones attend "Celeste And Jesse Forever" After-Party at Grey Goose Blue Door on January 20, 2012 in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Grey Goose) (Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Grey Goose)
Through the years LOS ANGELES, CA - JANUARY 26: Producer Quincy Jones appears at the Michael Jackson Hand and Footprint ceremony at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on January 26, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images) (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Through the years WEST HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 22: Cicely Tyson and Quincy Jones attend Common's 5th Annual Toast to the Arts at Ysabel on February 22, 2019 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Arnold Turner/Getty Images for Freedom Road Productions) (Arnold Turner/Getty Images for Freedom Road P)
Through the years PHOENIX, AZ - MARCH 23: Quincy Jones attends Celebrity Fight Night XXV on March 23, 2019 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Celebrity Fight Night) (Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Celebrity Fight)
Through the years LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - MAY 10: (L-R) Director Alan Hicks, Quincy Jones and Rashida Jones attend Q's Jook Joint Screening, Reception and Toast at Raleigh Studios on May 10, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Netflix) (Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Netflix)
Through the years LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - MAY 10: Quincy Jones attends Q's Jook Joint Screening, Reception and Toast at Raleigh Studios on May 10, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Netflix) (Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Netflix)
Through the years LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JUNE 03: Queen Latifah and Quincy Jones attend Netflix world premiere of "THE BLACK GODFATHER at the Paramount Theater on June 03, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Netflix) (Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Netflix)
Through the years DENVER, COLORADO - NOVEMBER 02: Quincy Jones at the Global Down Syndrome Foundation's Be Beautiful Be Yourself Fashion Show at Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel on November 02, 2019 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Tom Cooper/Getty Images for Global Down Syndrome Foundation) (Tom Cooper/Getty Images for Global Down Syn)
Through the years UNSPECIFIED - OCTOBER 10: In this screengrab Quincy Jones appears during the 2020 Carousel of Hope Ball benefiting the Children’s Diabetes Foundation on October 10, 2020 in UNSPECIFIED, UNSPECIFIED - Region AMER. (Photo by Getty Images/Getty Images for Children's Diabetes Foundation ) (Getty Images/["Getty Images for Children's Di)