Quincy Jones

Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (March 14, 1933 – November 3, 2024) was an American record producer, composer, arranger, conductor, trumpeter, and bandleader. Over his seven-decade career, he attained numerous accolades, including 28 Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Tony Award, in addition to seven Academy Awards and four Golden Globe Award nominations. Jones rose to fame in the 1950s as a jazz arranger and conductor, then became well known for producing hit records for pop artist Lesley Gore in the early 1960s and facilitating multiple collaborations between Frank Sinatra and jazz artist Count Basie. Jones worked on three of Michael Jackson's most successful albums: Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982), and Bad (1987). He also produced and conducted the charity song "We Are the World" in 1985, aimed at raising funds for famine victims in Ethiopia. Jones authored a variety of film scores, with notable works for The Pawnbroker (1965), In the Heat of the Night (1967), In Cold Blood (1967), The Italian Job (1969), The Wiz (1978), and The Color Purple (1985). He clinched the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series for his work on the miniseries Roots (1977). He earned a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical for producing the revival of The Color Purple (2016). Throughout his career, Jones was widely recognized with several honorary awards such as the Grammy Legend Award in 1992, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1995, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2001, the National Medal of the Arts in 2011, the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2014, and the Academy Honorary Award in June 2024. He was named one of the most influential jazz musicians of the 20th century by Time.