Quincy Jones, music producer of ‘Thriller,’ rose from poverty to show business heights

Quincy Jones, who passed away Nov. 3, is remembered for a career that ranged from producing Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” to prize-winning film scores. Born in Chicago in 1933, he overcame racial barriers to become a successful, pioneering Black executive.

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Quincy Jones, who died Nov. 3 at the age of 91, was a multi-talented music titan whose vast legacy ranged from producing Michael Jackson’s historic “Thriller” album to writing prize-winning film and television scores and collaborating with Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, and hundreds of other recording artists.

Mr. Jones rose from running with gangs on the South Side of Chicago to the very heights of show business, becoming one of the first Black executives to thrive in Hollywood and amassing an extraordinary musical catalog that includes some of the richest moments of American rhythm and song. For years, it was unlikely to find a music lover who did not own at least one record with his name on it, or a leader in the entertainment industry and beyond who did not have some connection to him.

Mr. Jones kept company with presidents and foreign leaders, movie stars and musicians, philanthropists and business leaders. He toured with Count Basie and Lionel Hampton, arranged records for Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, composed the soundtracks for “Roots” and “In the Heat of the Night,” organized President Bill Clinton’s first inaugural celebration, and oversaw the all-star recording of “We Are the World,” the 1985 charity record for famine relief in Africa.

Lionel Richie, who co-wrote “We Are the World” and was among the featured singers, would call Mr. Jones “the master orchestrator.”

In a career which began when records were still played on platters turning at 78 rpm, top honors likely go to his productions with Mr. Jackson: “Off the Wall,” “Thriller,” and “Bad” were albums near-universal in their style and appeal. Mr. Jones’ versatility and imagination helped set off the explosive talents of Mr. Jackson as he transformed from child star to the “King of Pop.” On such classic tracks as “Billie Jean” and “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough,” Mr. Jones and Mr. Jackson fashioned a global soundscape out of disco, funk, rock, pop, R&B and jazz, and African chants. For “Thriller,” some of the most memorable touches originated with Mr. Jones, who recruited Eddie Van Halen for a guitar solo on the genre-fusing “Beat It” and brought in Vincent Price for a ghoulish voiceover on the title track.

“Thriller” sold more than 20 million copies in 1983 alone and has contended with the Eagles’ “Greatest Hits 1971-1975” among others as the best-selling album of all time.

“If an album doesn’t do well, everyone says ‘it was the producers’ fault’; so if it does well, it should be your ‘fault,’ too,” Mr. Jones said in an interview with the Library of Congress in 2016. “The tracks don’t just all of a sudden appear. The producer has to have the skill, experience, and ability to guide the vision to completion.”

The list of his honors and awards fills 18 pages in his 2001 autobiography “Q”, including 27 Grammys at the time (now 28), an honorary Academy Award (now two), and an Emmy for “Roots.” He also received France’s Legion d’Honneur, the Rudolph Valentino Award from the Republic of Italy, and a Kennedy Center tribute for his contributions to American culture. He was the subject of a 1990 documentary, “Listen Up: The Lives of Quincy Jones” and a 2018 film by daughter Rashida Jones. His memoir made him a best-selling author.

Born in Chicago in 1933, Mr. Jones would cite the hymns his mother sang around the house as the first music he could remember. But he looked back sadly on his childhood, once telling Oprah Winfrey, “There are two kinds of people: those who have nurturing parents or caretakers, and those who don’t. Nothing’s in between.” Mr. Jones’ mother suffered from emotional problems and was eventually institutionalized, a loss that made the world seem “senseless” for Quincy. He spent much of his time in Chicago on the streets, with gangs, stealing, and fighting.

“They nailed my hand to a fence with a switchblade, man,” he told the AP in 2018, showing a scar from his childhood.

Music saved him. As a boy, he learned that a Chicago neighbor owned a piano and he soon played it constantly himself. His father moved to Washington state when Mr. Jones was 10 and his world changed at a neighborhood recreation center. Mr. Jones and some friends had broken into the kitchen and helped themselves to lemon meringue pie when Mr. Jones noticed a small room nearby with a stage. On the stage was a piano.

“I went up there, paused, stared, and then tinkled on it for a moment,” he wrote in his autobiography. “That’s where I began to find peace. I was 11. I knew this was it for me. Forever.”

Within a few years, he was playing trumpet and befriending a young blind musician named Ray Charles, who became a lifelong friend. He was gifted enough to win a scholarship at the Berklee College of Music in Boston but dropped out when Mr. Hampton invited him to tour with his band. Mr. Jones went on to work as a freelance composer, conductor, arranger, and producer. As a teen, he backed Billie Holiday. By his mid-20s, he was touring with his own band.

“We had the best jazz band on the planet, and yet we were literally starving,” Mr. Jones later told Musician magazine. “That’s when I discovered that there was music, and there was the music business. If I were to survive, I would have to learn the difference between the two.”

As a music executive, he overcame racial barriers by becoming a vice president at Mercury Records in the early ‘60s. In 1971, he became the first Black musical director for the Academy Awards ceremony. The first movie he produced, “The Color Purple,” received 11 Oscar nominations in 1986. (But, to his great disappointment, no wins). In a partnership with Time Warner, he created Quincy Jones Entertainment, which included the pop-culture magazine Vibe and Qwest Broadcasting. The company was sold for $270 million in 1999.

“My philosophy as a businessman has always come from the same roots as my personal credo: take talented people on their own terms and treat them fairly and with respect, no matter who they are or where they come from,” Mr. Jones wrote in his autobiography.

He was at ease with virtually every form of American music, whether setting Sinatra’s “Fly Me to the Moon” to a punchy, swinging rhythm, and wistful flute or opening his production of Charles’ soulful “In the Heat of the Night” with a lusty tenor sax solo. He worked with jazz giants (Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington), rappers (Snoop Dogg, LL Cool J), crooners (Sinatra, Tony Bennett), pop singers (Lesley Gore), and rhythm and blues stars (Chaka Khan, Queen Latifah).

On “We Are the World” alone, performers included Michael Jackson, Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder, and Bruce Springsteen. He co-wrote hits for Mr. Jackson – “P.Y.T (Pretty Young Thing)” – and Donna Summer – “Love Is in Control,” “Finger on the Trigger” – and had songs sampled by Tupac Shakur, Kanye West, and other rappers. He even composed the theme song for the sitcom “Sanford and Son.”

Mr. Jones was a facilitator and maker of the stars. He gave Will Smith a key break in the hit TV show “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” which Mr. Jones produced, and through “The Color Purple” he introduced Winfrey and Whoopi Goldberg to filmgoers. Starting in the 1960s, he composed more than 35 film scores, including “The Pawnbroker,” “In the Heat of the Night,” and “In Cold Blood.”

He called scoring “a multifaceted process, an abstract combination of science and soul.”

Mr. Jones’ work on the soundtrack for “The Wiz” led to his partnership with Mr. Jackson, who starred in the 1978 movie. In an essay published in Time magazine after Mr. Jackson’s death, in 2009, Mr. Jones remembered that the singer kept slips of paper on him that contained thoughts by famous thinkers. When Mr. Jones asked about the origins of one passage, Mr. Jackson answered “Socrates,” but pronounced it “SO-crayts.” Mr. Jones corrected him, “Michael, it’s SOCK-ra-tees.”

“And the look he gave me then, it just prompted me to say, because I’d been impressed by all the things I saw in him during the rehearsal process, ‘I would love to take a shot at producing your album,’” Mr. Jones recalled. “And he went back and told the people at Epic Records, and they said, `No way – Quincy’s too jazzy.’ Michael was persistent, and he and his managers went back and said, ‘Quincy’s producing the album.’ And we proceeded to make ‘Off the Wall.’ Ironically, that was one of the biggest Black-selling albums at the time, and that album saved all the jobs of the people saying I was the wrong guy. That’s the way it works.”

Tensions emerged after Mr. Jackson’s death. In 2013, Mr. Jones sued Mr. Jackson’s estate, claiming he was owed millions in royalties and production fees on some of the superstar’s greatest hits. In a 2018 interview with New York magazine, he called Mr. Jackson “as Machiavellian as they come” and alleged that he lifted material from others.

Mr. Jones was a father of seven children by five mothers. He was married three times, including the actor Peggy Lipton.

Along with Rashida, Mr. Jones is survived by daughters Jolie Jones Levine, Rachel Jones, Martina Jones, Kidada Jones, and Kenya Kinski-Jones; son Quincy Jones III; brother Richard Jones and sisters Theresa Frank and Margie Jay.

He was not an activist in his early years but changed after attending the 1968 funeral of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and later befriending the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Mr. Jones was dedicated to philanthropy, saying, “the best and only useful aspect of fame and celebrity is having a platform to help others.”

His causes included fighting HIV and AIDS, educating children, and providing for the poor around the world. He founded the Quincy Jones Listen Up! Foundation to connect young people with music, culture, and technology. He said he was driven throughout his life “by a spirit of adventure and a criminal level of optimism.”

“Life is like a dream, the Spanish poet and philosopher Federico Garcia Lorca said,” Mr. Jones wrote in his memoir. “Mine’s been in Technicolor, with full Dolby sound through THX amplification before they knew what these systems were.”

Mr. Jones’ publicist, Arnold Robinson, says he died at night on Nov. 3 at his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles, surrounded by his family. Mr. Jones was to have received an honorary Academy Award later this month.

“Tonight, with full but broken hearts, we must share the news of our father and brother Quincy Mr. Jones’ passing,” the family said in a statement. “And although this is an incredible loss for our family, we celebrate the great life that he lived and know there will never be another like him.”

This story was reported by The Associated Press. AP writer Andrew Dalton and former AP writer Sandy Cohen contributed to this report.