He produced Michael Jackson’s smash hit Thriller, as well as Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple and the NBC comedy The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, projects that helped cement his legacy as a hitmaker and media mogul. .
Jones has received numerous awards and recognitions, including an honorary degree from the John F. Kennedy Center in 2001, the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama in 2010, and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013. In 2021 joined James. Brown and Otis Redding are one of the first three “inductees” of the Atlanta Black Music and Entertainment Walk of Fame.
Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones at the 1984 Grammys in Los Angeles.Bob Riha Jr. / Getty Images Archive
“As a masterful inventor of musical hybrids, he has spanned nearly every medium, including recordings, live performances, film and television, blending pop, soul, hip-hop, jazz, classical, African and Brazilian music into many astonishing fusions.” Obama said about it in his speech..
Jones won 28 premios Grammy, placing it second on the all-time hit list. He won an Emmy in 1977 for writing the theme to the first episode of the miniseries Roots and later won the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the 1994 Oscars.
Quincy Delight Jones Jr. was born on March 14, 1933, in Chicago, the son of Quincy Delight Jones, a carpenter and semi-professional baseball player, and Sarah Francis, a bank clerk and apartment complex manager.
President Barack Obama presented Quincy Jones with the National Medal of Arts at the White House in 2011.Jim Watson/AFP via archive from Getty Images
Jones was first introduced to music when his mother sang religious hymns. He later developed schizophrenia; Jones’ parents eventually divorced and his father remarried.
In the early 1940s, Jones and his family moved to Bremerton, Washington, where he learned to play the trumpet and worked with an up-and-coming pianist and singer named Ray Charles, who helped persuade Jones to pursue his interest in music. musical genre. . art.
Jones briefly studied at Boston’s famous Schillinger House (now known as Berklee College of Music) in the 1950s. He then began touring with jazz great Lionel Hampton as a trumpeter and arranger.
