American music producer, Quincy Jones dies at 91

Zim Now Writer

The legendary music producer and cultural icon, Quincy Jones has passed away at age 91. He died on November 3, 2024, at his home in Los Angeles.

Jones is renowned for shaping the sound of American music over an eight-decade career, Jones worked with stars like Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra, and Aretha Franklin. He produced Michael Jackson’s groundbreaking albums, including Thriller, and championed social causes through music, such as with “We Are the World.”

He was also a successful composer of dozens of film scores, and had numerous chart hits under his own name. He was a bandleader in big band jazz, an arranger for jazz stars including Count Basie, and a multi-instrumentalist, most proficiently on trumpet and piano.

His TV and film production company, founded in 1990, had major success with the sitcom The Fresh Prince of Be-Air and other shows, and he continued to innovate well into his 80s, launching Qwest TV in 2017, an on-demand music TV service.

He was also a co-producer with Steven Spielberg on "The Color Purple," a 1985 film staring Oprah Winfrey, Danny Glover and Whoopi Goldberg. That film was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, including two nominations for Jones' original song and score.

Jones is third only to Beyoncé and Jay-Z for having the most Grammy award nominations of all time – 80 to their 88 each – and is the awards’ third most-garlanded winner, with 28.

Jones was often referred to as entertainment royalty -- and it would be difficult to overstate the breadth of his career or the depth of his influence on popular culture. He had begun his career as a composer and become a music producer. And he would eventually also made his mark on Hollywood.