He was 91 years old.
His body of work is incomparable.
Quincy was a true man of music who knew its unique and powerful ability to unite us all.
Quincy Jones at the 1991 Grammy AwardsRick Maiman/Sygma via Getty Images
He will be missed but will live on through his incredible body of work.
In less experienced hands, it would sound like mud, but they managed to put in five-note chords.
They got background vocals that sound like nothing we had ever heard before in that context.
Whether creating a pop smash or a TV score, Jones was always staunchly committed to forward-thinking production.
And myIronsidetheme is the first time the public ever heard a synthesizer.
Then you might play it in the bar, the club, the yacht.
He was born on March 14, 1933, during the height of the Great Depression.
His mother suffered from mental illness and was sent to an asylum when Jones was young.
Thats where I began to find peace, Jones writes.
I knew this was it for me.
At age 13, Jones was already attempting to write arrangements of his own for jazz big bands.
Once the war ended, Jones family moved south to Seattle, where his musical education was turbocharged.
At 14, he befriended a local musician with a promising future: Ray Charles.
He also started playing in bands.
Then wed play bebop jam sessions … until the break of dawn.
During the early Sixties, Jones also showed his aptitude for making indelible pop singles.
He also reached the mainstream by different means, branched out into Hollywood around this time.
In 1974, Jones suffered an aneurysm and underwent a pair of life-saving brain surgeries.
He began to pivot away from scoring, too, where the sheer volume of composition required was backbreaking.
Epic Records initially balked at the idea.
But Jackson demanded Jones, and Epic relented.
This led to one of the most fruitful musical partnerships in history.
These endearing quips made it seem like Jones accomplishments were effortless and perhaps even repeatable.
The fact that no one has matched them suggests otherwise.
