Legendary musician and producer Quincy Jones dies at 91

Quincy Jones, the music giant who worked with Michael Jackson and Frank Sinatra, has died at the age of 91 in Los Angeles. Originally from Chicago, trained trumpeter, Quincy Jones accompanied all the developments of the second part of the 20th century.^e century, from jazz to hip-hop. He was one of the first to predict the importance of street music, with the relevance of the visionary that he was.

Quincy Jones started in the early 1950s in Lionel Hampton's orchestra, also collaborating with his close friend Ray Charles. He moved to France in 1957, where he took lessons with Nadia Boulanger and Olivier Messiaen, becoming artistic director of Barclay records and becoming friends with Boris Vian and Henri Salvador. Returning to the United States, he was the first black named vice-president of a major record company (Mercury), before becoming a composer of successful film scores and an in-demand arranger (for Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee and Ella Fitzgerald). .

The man who made Michael Jackson

In three albums (Off the Wall, Thriller et Bad), Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson revolutionized popular music. The legendary producer allowed the artist to be part of a musical lineage that went back to Messiaen through jazz, soul, funk, pop and rock. He also offered him an unparalleled sound and production, which made each of the titles they recorded together standards that can still be listened to more than twenty years later.

From the beginning of the 1990s, the star worked with other arrangers, none of whom knew how to take him to these heights again. It is said that Michael Jackson asked Quincy Jones to come to his rescue at the beginning of this century. At over 70 years old, he declared himself too old to take on such a workload.

Michael Jackson was immensely popular without sacrificing any musical excellence. He was lionized by millions who may have known nothing of Quincy Jones' service record. However, he would certainly not have been able to achieve his various strokes of genius without the contribution of a musician as learned and well versed in the developments of popular music as Quincy Jones. When the death of the king of pop was announced, the great Quincy said to himself “upset by the news”adding: “I lost a little brother.”

Back to its beginnings

After studying trumpet, Quincy Jones sang in a gospel quartet at the age of 12. He joined the University of Musicology in Boston and then joined Lionel Hampton on tour as a trumpeter. They tour in Europe among the greatest: Clifford Brown, Art Farmer, Gigi Gryce, Alan Dawson. Then Quincy attacks New York. In the 1950s, he arranged and recorded for artists like Ray Charles, Count Basie, Duke Ellington… In 1956, he recorded his first solo album, This is how I feel about jazzwhich will lead him to glory. To finance his studies, he worked for Barclay, recording French artists such as Charles Aznavour, Jacques Brel and Henri Salvador, and American artists – Sarah Vaughan, Billy Eckstine and Andy Williams. Quincy received his first Grammy in 1963 for his arrangements of I Can’t Stop Loving You by Count Basie. He also composes for television, for Cosby Show, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Airor even Rootswhich earned him an Emmy Award. In 1985, he launched into film co-production with Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Alice Walker's book, The Color Purple. Quincy Jones recorded numerous albums, including This Is How I Feel (1984), and continues to produce references like Sinatra, Ray Charles or Michael Jackson. Since 1991, he has been co-producer at the Montreux Jazz and World Music Festival.