(Paris) Creator of global hits from Frank Sinatra to Michael Jackson, the American producer and jazz trumpeter Quincy Jones, whose death at the age of 91 was announced on Monday, marked his era by establishing himself as an outstanding composer, multi-awarded career.
Published at 5:10 a.m.
Updated at 6:25 a.m.
Fanny LATTACH
Agence France-Presse
In an environment where producers most often work in the shadows, the musician, composer, arranger and producer is one of the rare ones to have stepped into the spotlight, standing out as a reference in American music, period second half of the XXe century.
He “passed away peacefully” at his home in Los Angeles in the presence of “his children, his brothers and sisters and his close family,” announced his press secretary Arnold Robinson in a press release on Monday.
“While this is an incredible loss for our family, we celebrate the great life he lived and know there will never be another like him,” his family said. “Thanks to his music and his boundless love, Quincy Jones’ heart will beat for eternity,” she added.
“Your soul is gone, but your legacy will continue to shine,” greeted French DJ Bob Sinclar on Instagram. “With you, life was swinging, it was jazzy, you were joy and rhythm, you were a genius! », reacted on X the French music hall artist Line Renaud, who made a career across the Atlantic in the 1960s.
The composer’s life flirts with the beautiful stories of Uncle Sam: born in 1933 in a city of Chicago hit by the Great Depression, to a mother suffering from schizophrenia and a carpenter father, Quincy Delight Jones Jr., his real name, came across a piano at the age of 11. It’s a revelation, the first note of his life as an artist.
In his memoirs, he describes his meeting with Ray Charles as a “blessing”, as this elder, with whom he interacted as a teenager in local clubs, guided him in learning music.
Little by little the collaborations follow one another, the pace becomes frantic: Quincy Jones composes for singers from different worlds, works regularly with Frank Sinatra.
28 Grammy Awards
His CV was already well-stocked when he experienced the definitive turning point in his career, in 1978, thanks to the meeting with Michael Jackson, who sought to explore new sounds.
The chemistry between Jackson, Jones and sound engineer Bruce Swedien is more than just sparks. It generates the three best albums of the “King of Pop”: Off the wall (1979), Bad (1987) and especially Thriller (1982), the best-selling album in history, selling more than 100 million copies.
An eclectic and hard worker, Quincy Jones has released more than 400 records and won 28 Grammy Awards, achieving the status of living legend.
In 1961, he was the first African-American to reach a management position in the recording industry, becoming vice-president of the Mercury Records label.
Quincy Jones had also lived for a few years in Paris in his youth, where he settled in 1957, spending time with jazzmen and stars of the time, from Charles Aznavour to Jacques Brel.
In 2014, he was made Commander of Arts and Letters in Paris by the former Minister of Culture Jack Lang, who praised this “guardian of tradition and herald of new trends”.
Prolific in music and in family – he had seven children – “Mr. Q” as this jack-of-all-trades was nicknamed, had also turned to film production (The color purple by Steven Spielberg, 1985) and series like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Airwhich revealed Will Smith.
Committed, the producer managed to bring together a panel of stars, from Bob Dylan to Bruce Springsteen via Cyndi Lauper, for the successful charity song We are the world (1985) recorded by the “supergroup” “USA for Africa” and dedicated to the fight against famine in Ethiopia.
