Quincy Jones, a legendary musician, has died. He was 91.
Arnold Robinson, Jones’ spokesperson, notified the Associated Press that he died on Sunday, November 3, at his Los Angeles home, surrounded by his family.
“Tonight, with full but broken hearts, we must share the news of our father and brother Quincy Jones’s passing,” the family stated in a statement, according 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.”
The musician’s children are Rashida Jones, Kidada Jones, Kenya Kinski-Jones, Quincy Jones III, Jolie Jones Levine, Martina Jones, and Rachel Jones. His grandkids, Isaiah Jones Koenig, Quincy Renzo Delight Jones IV, and Nea Jones, also survive him. Actor-musician Quincy Brown, named after the music legend, counts him as his godfather.
Jones is the second-most Grammy-awarded musician of all time, with 28 wins. Since 1961, he has received a record 80 nominations. The music superstar has won three Grammys for Producer of the Year and two for Album and Song of the year.
He avoided death in 1974, when he was just 41 years old. After developing a brain aneurysm and undergoing surgery, the music legend received news that his second aneurysm was about to burst. He had surgery again. They gave him a one-in-a-hundred chance of survival at the time.
At the age of 14, Jones fled his violent stepmother’s quarters and joined the National Guard, as he revealed to GQ in 2018. He asserts that his stepmother did not address him by name until he was 57. He feigned his age of 18 to gain entry, yet he encountered overt bigotry. He and a group of friends were traveling to a rodeo in Yakima during this time when a Trailway bus struck them. He claims that everyone in the automobile perished except for him; the scene was horrific and left him scarred. He tried driving lessons a few years later but “just couldn’t do it” and hasn’t driven since.
Born on March 14, 1933, the Chicago native originally rose to fame as a trumpet player in the ensembles of jazz legends Lionel Hampton and Dizzy Gillespie.
Jones, a producer and arranger, has contributed to the success of many music legends, including Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, Paul Simon, Aretha Franklin, and others. He produced Jackson’s legendary 1982 song “Beat It.” Jones not only produced the song, but he also asked late music prodigy Eddie Van Halen to play the track’s now-legendary guitar solo.
Jones’ 1974 album Body Heat reached number six on the Billboard 200 list. He has 13 Hot 100 singles and a run of Top 20 albums.