Quincy Jones, American music titan, dead at 91

Quincy Jones, the multi-talented music titan whose vast legacy ranged from producing Michael Jackson's historic Thriller album to writing prize-winning film and television scores and collaborating with Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles and hundreds of other recording artists, has died at 91.

Jones's publicist, Arnold Robinson, says he died Sunday night at his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles, surrounded by his family.

"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 rose from running with gangs on the South Side of Chicago to the very heights of show business, becoming one of the first Black executives to thrive in Hollywood and amassing an extraordinary musical catalogue that includes some of the richest moments of American rhythm and song. 

Jones kept company with presidents and foreign leaders, movie stars and musicians, philanthropists and business leaders. He toured with Count Basie and Lionel Hampton, arranged records for Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, composed the soundtracks for Roots and In the Heat of the Night, organized president Bill Clinton's first inaugural celebration and oversaw the all-star recording of We Are the World, the 1985 charity record 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."

In a career which began when records were still played on vinyl at 78 rpm, top honours likely go to his productions with Jackson: Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad were albums near-universal in their style and appeal. Jones's versatility and imagination helped set off the explosive talents of Jackson 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.

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. "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. 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.

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.

Born in Chicago in 1933, Jones would cite the hymns his mother sang around the house as the first music he could remember. But he looked back sadly on his childhood, once telling Oprah Winfrey that: "There are two kinds of people: those who have nurturing parents or caretakers, and those who don't. Nothing's in between."

Jones's mother suffered from emotional problems and was eventually institutionalized, a loss that made the world seem "senseless" for Quincy. He spent much of his time in Chicago on the streets, with gangs, stealing and fighting.