The icons of the twentieth century are slowly beginning to step aside and leave this world. The latest is Quincy Jones, one of the most famous music producers and composers of all time, best known for working on Michael Jackson's most famous records and collaborating with artists such as Frank Sinatra and Count Basie. Jones passed away at the age of 91 after a career studded with countless awards and accolades, having managed to make history for producing Jacksonian masterpieces such as Thriller (1982), Off the Wall (1979) and Bad (1987) but also for producing films The Color Purple (1985), nominated for 11 Academy Awards, and television series such as Willy, Prince of Bel-Air.
Born in Chicago in 1933, Quincy Jones took up music at a very young age, breaking into jazz circles by learning to play the trumpet as a teenager. After studying at Berklee in Boston, he began working steadily as an arranger and composer in the 1950s following major orchestras as well as for television and music labels, furthering his studies in Paris. In the 1960s he became vice president of the Mercury record company and began working as a film score composer, especially for crime films such as In Cold Blood, Getaway! and An Italian Job.
After many years working with some of the most important singers in American jazz, from Sarah Vaughan to Billy Eckstine, from Ella Fitzgerald to Frank Sinatra, the turning point for Quincy Jones came in 1978 when, on the set of the film I'm Magic, he met Michael Jackson with whom he worked on the album Off the Wall. It was the beginning of a partnership that would also lead Jones to produce the singer's next two records including Thriller, the best-selling album in history. Thanks to his collaboration with Jackson, Quincy Jones becomes one of the most prominent personalities in American pop culture as well as one of the most powerful African American men in the U.S. entertainment industry, not to mention that behind the worldwide success of We are the World, the famous song sung for charity by some of the most famous musicians ever in 1985, is also his hand.
Original article appeared on Vanity Fair
