Quincy Jones (1933-2024) obituary: from jazz to The Color Purple

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Published: Monday, 04 November 2024 at 10:53 AM

Quincy Jones made history twice over at the 1968 Academy Awards. He was the first African-American composer to be nominated for ‘Best Original Song’ (for Banning’s ‘The Eyes of Love’) and was nominated a second time that very same year for his original score for In Cold Blood. While he won neither statue, it was recognition of Jones’s impact on screen. But Jones was so much more than a film composer.

Jazz captured Jones’s heart (and soul) early on while growing up in Chicago, and while formal studies in Seattle and at the Berklee School of Music were underway Jones jumped ship to play trumpet and write arrangements. He never looked back, having made connections with artists like Ray Charles and Lionel Hampton. Though a regular on tour in Europe and further afield with various artists (including Dizzy Gillespie), New York became home and the city’s clubs, stages and studios were regular working hangouts for Jones. He played with some of the biggest names in the business, and a few who were also on their way up – including a young Elvis Presley.

In the late ’50s Jones returned to Europe. In Paris he spent time studying with Messiaen and Nadia Boulanger, before heading on the road again as a music director. He also took his first steps as a record producer while in Europe, serving as music director for a French label and going on to work with Mercury Records back in New York, which he served as vice president in the early 1960s.

The 1960s and ’70s were golden for Quincy Jones as a composer for film and for his own albums; his now classic piece ‘Soul Bossa Nova’ (later made famous by the Austin Powers movies) was first released in 1962. He worked regularly as an arranger and producer for some of music’s biggest stars in these years, too – Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Dinah Washington and Michael Jackson to name a few. Jackson and Jones would form a legendary creative partnership after the singer left The Jacksons to go solo. Jones produced his iconic albums Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad.

Quincy Jones had dipped his toe into film music with 1961’s The Boy in the Tree while still in Europe, but he didn’t embrace work as a film composer-proper until a few years later. 1964’s The Pawn Broker was the first in a long line of films featuring music by Jones. He wrote the music for the likes of The Slender Thread (1965), In the Heat of the Night (1967), The Italian Job (1969), They Call Me Mister Tibbs! (1970), two episodes of TV’s Roots (1977) and Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple (1985).

Spielberg’s beautiful film of Alice Walker’s 1982 novel was produced by Quincy Jones. He worked with Thriller’s co-writer Rod Temperton on the film’s soundtrack, which included a slew of original songs – including the Oscar-nominated ‘Miss Celie’s Blues (Sister)’. His contribution of the film’s original score (also nominated for an Oscar in 1986) marked the first time Spielberg did not work with composer John Williams on one of his feature films. Jones would go on to produce further film and television shows, including the hugely popular sitcome The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

The Color Purple wasn’t the only highlight of 1985 for Jones. It was also the year of ‘We Are The World’, the smash-hit charity single, devised and produced by Quincy Jones and featuring a who’s who of American pop and rock talent. It raised millions for famine-stricken Ethiopia.

The decades that followed saw Jones continue to work much in the same way, producing artists, creating opportunities for up and coming talent, writing music and touring. He was also a 28-time Grammy winner. Jazz would always be an important part of Quincy Jones’s musical life, and he enjoyed ‘living legend’ status. A celebratory ‘Quincy Jones Prom’ was a highlight of the 2016 BBC Proms programme. Featuring the Metropole Orkest, conducted by Jules Buckley, it included some of Jones’s most iconic tunes and special guests – including Jacob Collier and Alfredo Rodriguez.