87 Facts About Quincy Jones

Quincy Jones produced three of the most successful albums by Michael Jackson: Off the Wall, Thriller, and Bad.

In 1985, Quincy Jones produced and conducted the charity song "We Are the World", which raised funds for victims of famine in Ethiopia.

Quincy Jones composed numerous film scores including for The Pawnbroker, In the Heat of the Night, In Cold Blood, The Italian Job, The Wiz, and The Color Purple.

Quincy Jones won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series for the miniseries Roots.

Quincy Jones received a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical as a producer for the revival of The Color Purple.

Quincy Jones was named one of the most influential jazz musicians of the 20th century by Time.

Quincy Jones's mother had European ancestry, including Lanier male ancestors who fought for the Confederacy, making him eligible for membership in the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

Quincy Jones had a younger brother, Lloyd, who was an engineer for the Seattle television station KOMO-TV until his death in 1998.

Quincy Jones was introduced to music by his mother who always sang religious songs, and next-door neighbor Lucy Jackson.

When Quincy Jones was five or six, Jackson played stride piano next door, and he would listen through the walls.

When Quincy Jones was young, his mother had a schizophrenic breakdown and was sent to a mental institution.

Quincy Jones's father divorced her and married Elvera Jones, who already had three children: Waymond, Theresa, and Katherine.

Quincy Jones's father took a wartime job at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.

Quincy Jones's classmates included Charles Taylor, who played saxophone and whose mother, Evelyn Bundy, was one of Seattle's first society jazz bandleaders.

Quincy Jones said he acquired more experience with music growing up in a smaller city because of the lack of competition.

Quincy Jones cited Ray Charles as an early inspiration for his own music career, noting that Charles overcame his blindness to achieve his musical goals.

Quincy Jones credited his father's sturdy work ethic with giving him the means to proceed, and his loving nature with holding the family together.

In 1953, at age 20, Quincy Jones traveled with jazz bandleader Lionel Hampton for a European tour of the Hampton orchestra.

Quincy Jones became music director at Barclay, a French record company.

Quincy Jones worked with Doug Moody, founder of Mystic Records.

Quincy Jones first worked with Frank Sinatra in 1958 when invited by Princess Grace to arrange a benefit concert at the Monaco Sporting Club.

Quincy Jones conducted and arranged Sinatra's live album with the Basie Band, Sinatra at the Sands.

In 1961, Quincy Jones was promoted and became the vice-president of Mercury, the first African American to hold the position.

Quincy Jones composed "The Streetbeater", which became the theme music for the television sitcom Sanford and Son, starring his close friend Redd Foxx, and the themes for other TV shows, including Ironside, Rebop, Banacek, The Bill Cosby Show, the opening episode of Roots, Mad TV, and the game show Now You See It.

In 1975, Quincy Jones founded Qwest Productions, for which he arranged and produced successful albums by Frank Sinatra and others.

Quincy Jones offered some names but eventually offered to produce the record himself.

Quincy Jones worked on Jackson's album Bad, which sold 45 million copies, and was the last time they worked with each other.

Audio interviews with Quincy Jones are included in the 2001 special editions of Off the Wall, Thriller, and Bad.

Additionally, through this picture, Quincy Jones is credited with introducing Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey to film audiences around the world.

When people marveled at his ability to make the collaboration work, Quincy Jones explained that he had taped a sign on the entrance reading "Check Your Ego at the Door".

Quincy Jones was quoted as saying, "We don't want to make a hunger record in tuxedos", requiring all participants to wear casual clothing in the studio.

In 1986, Quincy Jones started off Qwest Entertainment to produce theatrical feature films, through Qwest Film and Television.

Quincy Jones launched a home video label, Qwest Home Video, in order to manage the home video titles made by the studio.

In 1990, Quincy Jones Productions joined with Time Warner to create Quincy Jones Entertainment.

Quincy Jones produced first-run syndication's The Jenny Quincy Jones Show and FOX's Mad TV, which ran for 14 seasons.

Quincy Jones had a brief appearance in the 1990 video for the Time song "Jerk Out", and was a guest actor on an episode of The Boondocks.

Quincy Jones appeared with Ray Charles in the music video of their song "One Mint Julep" and with Ray Charles and Chaka Khan in the music video of their song "I'll Be Good to You".

Quincy Jones hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live on February 10,1990, during SNL's 15th season.

Quincy Jones later produced his own sketch comedy show, FOX's Mad TV, which ran from 1995 to 2009.

In 1993, Quincy Jones collaborated with David Salzman to produce the concert An American Reunion, a celebration of Bill Clinton's inauguration as President of the United States.

Quincy Jones was the consummate entertainer, and his contributions and legacy will be felt upon the world forever.

Quincy Jones appeared in the 1999 Walt Disney Pictures animated film Fantasia 2000, introducing the set piece of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.

On February 10,2008, Quincy Jones joined Usher in presenting the Grammy Award for Album of the Year to Herbie Hancock.

On January 6,2009, Quincy Jones appeared on NBC's Last Call with Carson Daly to discuss his career.

Daly informally floated the idea that Quincy Jones should become the first minister of culture for the United States, pending the inauguration of Barack Obama as president.

Quincy Jones worked with Vance and Sides to develop the video lessons and incorporate techniques to modernize the instruction format.

In February 2014, Quincy Jones appeared in Keep on Keepin' On, a documentary about his friend, jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player Clark Terry.

In July 2014, Quincy Jones starred in a documentary film called The Distortion of Sound.

On March 20,2020, Quincy Jones appeared in a music video by Travis Scott and Young Thug for the song "Out West".

In January 2022, Jones appeared on the album Dawn FM by Canadian singer the Weeknd, performing a monolog in the sixth track, "A Tale by Quincy".

Quincy Jones was one of the founders of the Institute for Black American Music, whose events aimed to raise funds for the creation of a national library of African-American art and music.

Quincy Jones was one of the founders of the Black Arts Festival in his hometown of Chicago.

For many years, Quincy Jones worked closely with Bono of U2 on a number of philanthropic causes.

Quincy Jones was the founder of the Quincy Jones Listen Up Foundation, a nonprofit organization that built more than 100 homes in South Africa and which aimed to connect youths with technology, education, culture, and music.

In 2004, Quincy Jones helped to launch the We Are the Future project, which gave children in poor and conflict-ridden areas a chance to live their childhoods and develop a sense of hope.

The program was the result of a strategic partnership between the Global Forum, the Quincy Jones Listen Up Foundation, and Hani Masri, with the support of the World Bank, UN agencies, and major companies.

In 2001, Quincy Jones became an honorary member of the board of directors of the Jazz Foundation of America.

Quincy Jones worked with the foundation to save the homes and lives of America's elderly jazz and blues musicians, including those who had survived Hurricane Katrina.

Quincy Jones was involved in the Linda Crnic Institute which aimed to improve the lives of people with Down Syndrome through advanced biomedical research.

Quincy Jones was married three times and had seven children with five women.

Quincy Jones was married to Jeri Caldwell from 1957 to 1966, and they had a daughter named Jolie.

Quincy Jones had a brief affair with Carol Reynolds, and they had a daughter named Rachel.

Quincy Jones was later married to Swedish actress Ulla Andersson from 1967 to 1974, and they had a daughter named Martina and a son named Quincy, who became a music producer.

The day after his divorce from Andersson, Quincy Jones married American actress Peggy Lipton.

Quincy Jones later dated and lived with German actress Nastassja Kinski from 1991 to 1995, and they had a daughter named Kenya, who became a fashion model.

In 1994, rapper Tupac Shakur criticized Quincy Jones for having relationships with white women, prompting Quincy Jones's daughter Rashida to pen a scathing open letter in response, which was published in The Source.

Quincy Jones never learned to drive, citing his involvement in a car crash at age 14 as the reason.

Quincy Jones attempted to take driving lessons a few years later but he "just couldn't do it" and never drove again.

Quincy Jones revealed that Ray Charles introduced him to heroin at the age of 15, although he stopped using it after five months.

Quincy Jones held a negative opinion of the Catholic Church, believing it is built upon the notions of money and "fear, smoke, and murder".

In October 2013, the BBC and The Hollywood Reporter said Quincy Jones planned to sue Michael Jackson's estate for $10 million.

Quincy Jones said that MJJ Productions, a song company managed by Jackson's estate and Sony Music Entertainment, improperly re-edited songs to deprive him of royalties and production fees and breached an agreement giving him the right to remix master recordings for albums released after Jackson's death.

The songs Quincy Jones produced for Jackson were used in the film This Is It.

Quincy Jones was reported to be filing the suits against the Michael Jackson Cirque du Soleil shows and the 25th-anniversary edition of the Bad album.

Quincy Jones believed he should have received a producer credit in the film.

In 1974, Quincy Jones developed a life-threatening brain aneurysm, leading to a decision to reduce his workload to spend time with his friends and family.

Quincy Jones attended his own service with his neurologist by his side, in case the excitement overwhelmed him.

Quincy Jones had two brain surgeries, and after the second was warned to never play the trumpet again, because "if he blew a trumpet in the ways that a trumpet player must, the clip [a metal plate in his head that was implanted after his brain aneurysm] would come free and he would die".

Quincy Jones ignored that advice, went on tour in Japan, and one night after playing trumpet had a pain in his head.

Doctors said the plate in his brain had nearly come loose, as they had warned, and Quincy Jones never played the trumpet again.

On November 3,2024, Quincy Jones died at his home in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles at the age of 91.

Quincy Jones was buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles.

In 1968, Quincy Jones became the first African American to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "The Eyes of Love" from the film Banning.

Quincy Jones was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score for his work on the 1967 film In Cold Blood, making him the first African American to be nominated twice in the same year.

In 1971, Quincy Jones became the first African American to be the musical director and conductor of the Academy Awards.

Quincy Jones became, in 1995, the first African American to receive the academy's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

Quincy Jones tied with sound designer Willie D Burton as the second most Oscar-nominated African American, with seven nominations each.