Quincy Jones known as the master orchestrator dies at 91 he worked with Frank Sinatra and Michael Jackson claimed Mafia boss killed JFK
American music producer Quincy Jones who produced Michael Jackson’s Thriller album and collaborated with artists including Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles has died aged 91.
Jones’s publicist Arnold Robinson said he died Sunday night surrounded by his family at his home in the Bel Air area of Los Angeles.
‘Tonight, with full but broken hearts, we must share the news of our father and brother Quincy Jones’ passing.
‘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.’ The family said in a statement.
Jones’s final Instagram post yesterday wished his daughter Tina Jones a happy birthday, and featured a photograph of the two smiling together. It said: ‘Happy Birthday to my Tina Beena! So proud to be yo papa! Big hug, I love you eternally.’
Born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1933, Jones would cite the hymns his mother sang around the house as the first music he could remember.
Trained in Paris as a classical composer, he merged a classical style with a deep love of jazz and beat. Frank Sinatra called him “The best musician I have ever worked with.” Jones rose to the top of show business as he became one of the first black executives to blossom in Hollywood and amassing an extraordinary musical catalogue.
He toured with Count Basie and Lionel Hampton, arranged records for Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald and composed the soundtracks for Roots and In The Heat Of The Night.
“We Are The World” probably the greatest album of all time was produced and conducted by Quincy Jones for Ethiopian famine relief 1985
Jones organised then-president Bill Clinton’s first inaugural celebration and oversaw the all-star recording of We Are The World in 1985 for famine relief in Africa.
Lionel Richie, who co-wrote We Are the World and was among the featured singers, would call Jones ‘the master orchestrator’.
Jones will perhaps be best remembered for his productions with Jackson, with his versatility and imagination helping set off the singer’s talents as he transformed from child star to the ‘King of Pop.’
On such classic tracks as ‘Billie Jean’ and ‘Don’t Stop `Til You Get Enough,’ Jones and Jackson fashioned a global soundscape out of disco, funk, rock, pop, R&B and jazz and African chants.
For ‘Thriller,’ some of the most memorable touches originated with Jones, who recruited Eddie Van Halen for a guitar solo on the genre-fusing ‘Beat It’ and brought in Vincent Price for a ghoulish voiceover on the title track.
Lionel Richie (left) and Quincy Jones ‘The Greatest Night in Pop’ COURTESY OF SUNDANCE INSTITUTE
‘Thriller’ sold more than 20 million copies in 1983 alone and has contended with the Eagles’ ‘Greatest Hits 1971-1975’ among others as the best-selling album of all time.
‘If an album doesn’t do well, everyone says `it was the producers fault’; so if it does well, it should be your `fault,’ too,’ Jones said in an interview with the Library of Congress in 2016.
At the 1984 Grammys with Michael Jackson
‘The tracks don’t just all of a sudden appear. The producer has to have the skill, experience and ability to guide the vision to completion.’
The list of his honours and awards fills 18 pages in his 2001 autobiography ‘Q’, including 27 Grammys at the time (now 28), an honorary Academy Award (now two) and an Emmy for ‘Roots.’
Quincy Jones works with Michael Jackson and Steven Spielberg on the ET soundtrack in 1982
He also received France’s Legion d’Honneur, the Rudolph Valentino Award from the Republic of Italy and a Kennedy Center tribute for his contributions to American culture.
In a controversial 2018 interview he claimed he lost his virginity at 12 to a 35 year old woman, dated Ivanka Trump and said the Mafia mob boss Sam Giancana ordered the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November 1963.
He was the subject of a 1990 documentary, ‘Listen Up: The Lives of Quincy Jones’ and a 2018 film by daughter Rashida Jones. His memoir made him a best-selling author.
Source X/MSN