Music titan Quincy Jones who worked with Michael Jackson and Frank Sinatra dies aged 91
4 November 2024, 07:54 | Updated: 4 November 2024, 08:05
American record producer and songwriter Quincy Jones has died at the age of 91.
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The US music titan who worked with Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra and countless other artists, won an honorary Oscar earlier this year for "extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement, exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences, or for outstanding service to the Academy”.
He worked on three of Michael Jackson's three most successful albums - "Off The Wall", "Thriller" and "Bad"
In a statement, his family said "there will never be another like him."
Jones' publicist, Arnold Robinson, said he died on Sunday night at his home in the Bel Air area 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 in American music.
For years, it was unlikely to find a music lover who did not own at least one record with his name on it, or a leader in the entertainment industry and beyond who did not have some connection with him.
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, organised then-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".
