Quincy Jones Dies: ‘Thriller’ Producer, 28-Time Grammy Winner & Music Icon Was 91

Tom Tapp
·4-min read
Quincy Jones Dies: ‘Thriller’ Producer, 28-Time Grammy Winner & Music Icon Was 91

Quincy Jones, the musician, composer, producer and songwriter whose oeuvre spanned seven decades including producing Michael Jackson’s Thriller to frequent collaborations with Frank Sinatra, producing the big-screen adaptation of The Color Purple and composing some of the most memorable film and TV music ever, has died. He was 91.

His publicist Arnold Robinson told the Associated Press that Jones died Sunday at his Bel-Air home but did not provide a cause of death.

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“Tonight, with full but broken hearts, we must share the news of our father and brother Quincy Jones’ passing,” the 28-time Grammy winner’s family said in a statement given to AP. “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.”

Any one on the long list of Jones’ accomplishments could make a career for another artist. He produced Thriller, which won eight Grammys and became a cultural behemoth. The 1982 disc is the best-selling studio album of all time in the U.S., with 34 million units sold, as ranks second among all albums behind Eagles: Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 and 38 million. He also produced two more of Jackson’s bestselling albums, Thriller predecessor Off the Wall (1980) and follow-up Bad (1987).

His work with Sinatra spanned decades. In 1964, he arranged and conducted Sinatra’s second album with Count Basie titled It Might as Well Be Swing. Two years later he collaborated with Sinatra on the live album, Sinatra at the Sands. Jones later produced what was to become the singer’s final album, L.A. Is My Lady, in 1984.

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He also convinced Miles Davis to record what would be Davis’ final album, Miles & Quincy: Live at Montreux, three months before the jazz great’s death in 1991.

Jones’ 28 career Grammys ranks third all-time behind Beyoncé’s 32 and George Solti’s 31. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer in 2013.

During his speech at the Rock Hall inductees’ news conference in 2012, Jones talked about his life as a young musician. “I tried to get in [Lionel Hampton’s] band when I was 15, and his wife threw me off the bus, told me to go back to school,” he said. “But they called me again at 18. Lionel Hampton, along with Louis Jordan – they were the first rock ’n’ roll bands, trust me. Lionel had all the jazz musicians, and it was the end of the big bands, but [Hampton] would not stop until he had people jumping off the top of the ceiling.”

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A father of seven including Parks and Recreation and Angie Tribeca alum Rashida Jones, he wrote music and scores for dozens of films, including In the Heat of the Night, In Cold Blood, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, The Out-of-Towners, They Call Me Mr. Tibbs, The Wiz and The Color Purple. Jones also produced the latter (his first such film credit) and its 2023 reimagining. His 1962 song “Soul Bossa Nova” later became the theme for 1997’s Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. Jones played himself in the film’s 2002 sequel, Goldmember.

On the small screen, Jones EP’d The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Mad TV, The Jenny Jones Show and the Oscars – in 1996 – and wrote music or scores for Ironside, The Bill Cosby Show, Roots, Mad TV and, most famously, Sanford & Son.

In 1985, he was a driving force behind “We Are the World,” producing the single with Michael Omartian to raise money for those beset by famine in Ethiopia. Among the artists who participated were Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, Billy Joel, Diana Ross, Cyndi Lauper, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen and Tina Turner.

Jones was nominated for seven Oscars over the course of his career and received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1995.

He also won an Emmy in the category of Outstanding Musical Composition for a Series for Roots and a Tony in the category of Best Revival of a Musical for The Color Purple.

During the 2012 Rock Hall presser, he summarized: “From blues and jazz — which is our classical music — bebop, doo-wop, hip-hop, rock ’n’ roll, whatever you want to call it, man, to me it’s all music, and you gotta feel it.”

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