Quincy Jones (1933 – 2024)

Written by News One November 8, 2024

Record producers typically don’t become household names. Then again, Quincy Jones was anything but typical. Jones, who died recently at the age of 91, was a respected jazz musician and arranger who worked with many of the greats of the mid-century scene: Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, and Dinah Washington among many other luminaries, while also composing scores for films including In the Heat of the Night, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, and In Cold Blood. But, starting in the early 1960s with Leslie Gore all the way into the 2010s, his biggest and most lasting mark on the world came as a producer of pop. He didn’t so much have his finger on the pulse of the culture as he supplied it. In his unusually long prime, Jones helped define America’s soundtrack.

His work with Michael Jackson on the artist’s break-out album, Off the Wall in 1978, the unprecedented explosion that was Thriller in 1982, and 1987’s Bad rank at the top of any list of most influential and lucrative collaborations of all time; together, the three albums sold over 130 million copies.

Jones was rightly just as proud of his long career as an activist. Over the years, he worked with the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and Bono of the band U2. After Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005, he worked with the Jazz Foundation of America to save the homes and lives of the city’s elderly jazz and blues musicians. He is perhaps best known as an activist for spearheading the USA for Africa recording of “We Are the World,” which brought together thirty or so of the biggest names in music at the time, a feat of ego-wrangling that has to rank as one of the greatest in world history.

From any angle, Quincy Jones’ life is remarkable. His impact on popular culture was immense. Learn more about this fascinating man at HCPL.