Quincy Jones, legendary musical pioneer, dies aged 91

4 November 2024, 11:44 | Updated: 4 November 2024, 12:10

Quincy Jones – who rubbed shoulders with Picasso and Stravinsky – has died at the age of 91. His career spanned a monumental seven decades.

Quincy Jones – one of the most prolific musical figures of the past 50 years – has died at the age of 91. His incredible career spanned multiple genres across seven decades, collaborating with some of the biggest stars of the last century, including Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, Donna Summer and Michael Jackson.

Quincy Delight Jones Jr. was born on 14 March 1933 in Chicago. His father, Quincy Jones Sr., was a semi-professional baseball player and a carpenter. His mother, Sarah Frances, was a bank officer and an apartment manager.

Jones gained a reputation as a highly skilled and versatile composer and arranger. He moved to Paris in the 50s and studied with Nadia Boulanger, the woman behind many of the 20th century’s greatest composers, and the avant-garde composer Olivier Messiaen, where he immersed himself in the post-war classical music scene.

In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Jones remarked, “There are 12 notes that have been floating around the universe for 720 years now, and we have those same 12 notes that Brahms, Bach and Beethoven had.”

“When I moved to Paris in 1957 and studied with Boulanger, I saw Stravinsky every day. He was with her, too.”

In addition to his production for pop stars, Jones wrote over 30 film scores, including The Italian Job.

He also rubbed shoulders with Pablo Picasso, and in the latter years of his life was a mentor figure to cross-genre phenomenon Jacob Collier, which marks Jones’ incredible life as a bridge between two worlds.

No matter what Jones was working on, his style was marked by a very distinctive sound world: lush strings, catchy melodies and cutting-edge production techniques.

In addition to his work with musical titans, he was the artistic advisor for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, spoke 26 languages and wrote the iconic ‘Soul Bossa Nova’, later used as the theme tune to Austin Powers.