Trumpeter, composer and Music producer Quincy Jones
couple Bill Trott
A true pop music legend, trumpeter, composer and music producer Quincy Jones has died at the age of 91, his press secretary announced Monday.
The artist with 28 Grammy Awards, including Best Album in 1991 for “Back on the Block”, was a hard worker in the studio, a master at managing egos during a career in which he collaborated with the most great artists.
In 1985, he was with singer Lionel Richie at the origin of the project “We Are the World”, a title bringing together Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Ray Charles, Diana Ross and Bob Dylan in the same studio to raise funds against famine in Ethiopia.
Outside of music, Quincy Jones has also shined in the film industry, co-producing “The Color Purple”, a drama directed by Steven Spielberg starring Danny Glover and Whoopi Goldberg.
He will also be at the origin of the television series “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”, partly inspired by the life of Will Smith, which will launch the actor's career.
A jack of all trades, Quincy Jones rubbed shoulders with the greatest artists of the 20th century, dining with Pablo Picasso, meeting Pope John Paul II or celebrating his 90th birthday with Nelson Mandela.
But his greatest collaboration was that begun at the end of the 1970s with Michael Jackson who produced three legendary albums: “Off the Wall” in 1979, “Thriller” in 1982 and “Bad” in 1987.
Originally from Chicago, Quincy Delight Jones Jr. experimented with several instruments at school then focused on the trumpet before meeting Ray Charles at 14, two years his senior and still anonymous, with whom he learned arranging and composition in Seattle.
Winner of a scholarship to study at the Berklee School Music in Boston, he left college to hit the road and accompany jazzman Lionel Hampton's group as a trumpet player in the 1950s.
After touring in the United States and Europe, he was heavily in debt and joined the record company Mercury Records in New York and became one of the first black directors of the company.
Quincy Jones released his first single in 1964 “It's My Party” and suffered his first criticism from jazz purists who accused him of being a sellout.
“The underlying motivation for any artist, whether it’s Stravinsky or Miles Davis, is to make the kind of music that he wants and that everyone buys,” he defended himself to Rolling Stone magazine .
He remained very active throughout his career, launching his own music label Qwest and a rap magazine Vibe as well as numerous humanitarian projects.
Quincy Jones was married three times and had seven children.
(Written by Bill Trott, Shubham Kalia and Devika Nair, French version Zhifan Liu, edited by Blandine Hénault)
