Winner of 27 Grammy Awards, 7 Oscar nominees, producer of Michael Jackson, collaborator of Frank Sinatra and Will Smith, Quincy Jones was an absolute music legend. He died at the age of 91.
He is an absolute legend of music who has just left us. The immense Quincy Jones, who distinguished himself during an extraordinary career spanning 70 years, died this Sunday at the age of 91, in his home in Bel Air, California.
To many, he remains known for his work with Michael Jackson, which began in 1979 with the album Off The Wallsold 20 million copies. Winner of no less than 27 Grammy Awards, he was also nominated 7 times for the Oscar.
“Tonight, with full but broken hearts, we must share the news of the passing of our father and brother Quincy Jones. And while this is an incredible loss to our family, we celebrate the beautiful life he lived and know that there will never be another like him” the family said in a statement, sent to Variety.
“He is truly one of a kind and will be greatly missed; we are comforted to know that the love and joy, which were the essence of his being, were shared with the world through all that he created through his music and his boundless love, Quincy Jones' heart will beat for eternity.
A gifted artist
Born on March 14, 1933 in Chicago, Quincy Jones began making a living from his art at the age of 18, starting with training in jazz in the orchestras of Lionel Hampton and Dizzy Gillespie. Hyper-talented, he quickly made a name for himself in the recording industry and in the 1960s became an arranger that everyone, from Frank Sinatra to Nana Mouskouri, wanted.
He then set foot in film and series music, his childhood dream. He wrote several dozen scores between the 60s and the 80s. With a very varied style, which ranges from jazz to pop, inspired by composers Henry Mancini and Armando Trovajoli, Quincy Jones left a significant influence in the soundtrack of the American cinema and television. For this one, he was the executive producer of the cult series The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, which launched the career of Will Smith.
In 1964, he was the first African-American artist to write a soundtrack for a film, which is also a pure masterpiece still too little known by Sidney Lumet: The Pawnbroker, in which Rod Steiger proves extraordinary under the features of a survivor of Nazi concentration camps, refugee in the United States, while his terrible past catches up with him.
A crash and a masterpiece
Adapted from a Broadway musical that was itself an African-American reinterpretation of the classic Wizard of Oz, The Wiz was an industrial accident for Universal Pictures and Motown Studios upon its release in 1978. The film earned a cult status over the years, particularly because it marks Michael Jackson's first collaboration with Quincy Jones, who would become the producer of the three legendary albums Off The Wall, Thriller et Bad.
In 1985, The Color Purple not only revealed Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey to the general public, but also enjoyed great success, notably thanks to the original soundtrack signed by Quincy Jones, also the film's producer. Recorded by Tata Vega with lyrics by Lionel Richie and performed on screen as playback by Margaret Avery, the title Miss Celie’s Blues (Sister) was nominated for an Oscar for best song in 1986. It has since become a jazz standard.
We Are The World
At the height of Michael Jackson's popularity in January 1985, Quincy Jones recorded We Are the World with a group of soloists, called USA For Africa, also including Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Diana Ross and Ray Charles. THE singlewhose proceeds were intended to help famine-stricken Ethiopia, sold an estimated 20 million copies worldwide and added three additional Grammys for Jones, including one for the album's record. year.
Here again, for the memory, the legendary clip…
Recipient of the National Medal of Arts from Barack Obama in 2011, Quincy Jones was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013.
Related News :