Age, Biography, and Wiki
Quincy Jones was born on March 14, 1933, and passed away on November 3, 2024, at the age of 91. He was an American musical conductor, record producer, trumpeter, musical arranger, and television producer. Jones's career spanned over six decades, starting as a teenager learning trumpet in Seattle and progressing to become one of the most influential figures in music. He is best known for his collaborations with Michael Jackson, producing iconic albums such as "Thriller," which remains the best-selling album of all time.
| Occupation | Autobiographer |
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| Date of Birth | 14 March 1933 |
| Age | 92 Years |
| Birth Place | Chicago, Illinois, US |
| Horoscope | Pisces |
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| Date of death | 3 November, 2024 |
| Died Place | Los Angeles, California, US |
Height, Weight & Measurements
Quincy Jones's physical measurements are not widely documented, but his towering presence in the music industry is unmistakable. His height and weight are not publicly emphasized as part of his professional profile.
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Dating & Relationship Status
Quincy Jones was married three times and had seven children with five different women: Jolie, Rachel, Martina, Quincy III, Kidada, Rashida, and Kenya. His personal life was marked by both professional success and family diversity.
For the 2006 PBS television program African American Lives, Jones had his DNA tested and genealogists researched his family history again. His DNA revealed he was mostly African, but also had 34% European ancestry on both sides of his family. Research showed that he had English, French, Italian, and Welsh ancestry through his father. His mother's side was of West and Central African descent, specifically from the Tikar people of Cameroon. His mother also had European ancestry, including Lanier male ancestors who fought for the Confederacy, making him eligible for membership in the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Among his ancestors was Elizabeth Washington Lewis, a sister of president George Washington.
Jones's family moved to Chicago during the Great Migration. Jones had a younger brother, Lloyd, who was an engineer for the Seattle television station KOMO-TV until his death in 1998. Jones was introduced to music by his mother who always sang religious songs, and next-door neighbor Lucy Jackson. When Jones was five or six, Jackson played stride piano next door, and he would listen through the walls. Jackson recalled that after he heard her one-day, she could not get him off her piano.
When Jones was young, his mother had a schizophrenic breakdown and was sent to a mental institution. His father divorced her and married Elvera Jones, who already had three children: Waymond, Theresa, and Katherine. Elvera and Quincy Sr. had three more children together: Jeanette, Margie, and Richard. The family moved to Sinclair Park, a segregated community in Bremerton, Washington, in 1943. Jones's father took a wartime job at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.
After the war, the family moved to Seattle, where Jones attended Garfield High School and developed his skills as a trumpeter and arranger. His classmates included Charles Taylor, who played saxophone and whose mother, Evelyn Bundy, was one of Seattle's first society jazz bandleaders. Jones and Taylor began playing music together, and at the age of fourteen they played with a National Reserve band. Jones said he acquired more experience with music growing up in a smaller city because of the lack of competition.
Jones cited Ray Charles as an early inspiration for his own music career, noting that Charles overcame his blindness to achieve his musical goals. Jones credited his father's sturdy work ethic with giving him the means to proceed, and his loving nature with holding the family together. Jones cited his father's rhyming motto: "Once a task is just begun, never leave until it's done. Be the labor great or small, do it well or not at all."
In 1994, rapper Tupac Shakur criticized Jones for having relationships with white women, prompting Jones's daughter Rashida to pen a scathing open letter in response, which was published in The Source. Jones's daughter Kidada developed a romantic relationship with Shakur, became engaged to him, and had been living with him for four months at the time of his death.
| Parents | |
| Husband | Jeri Caldwell (m. 1957-1966) Ulla Andersson (m. 1967-1974) Peggy Lipton (m. 1974-1990) |
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Net Worth and Salary
At the time of his death, Quincy Jones had an estimated net worth of $500 million. This figure reflects earnings from a variety of sources, including music production, film and television composing, royalties from classic recordings, publishing rights, concert performances, television and film production, and real estate investments.
After leaving the Hampton band in 1954, Jones settled in New York, and started writing "for anyone who would pay". In early 1956, he accepted a temporary job at CBS' 'Stage Show' hosted by Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey that was broadcast live from Studio 50 in New York City (known today as the Ed Sullivan Theater). On January 28, February 4, 11 and 18, as well as on March 17 and 24, Jones played second trumpet in the studio band that supported 21-year-old Elvis Presley in his first six television appearances. Presley sang "Heartbreak Hotel", which became his first No. 1 record and the Billboard magazine Pop Record of the year. Soon after, as a trumpeter and musical director for Dizzy Gillespie, Jones went on tour of the Middle East and South America sponsored by the United States Information Agency. After returning, he signed a contract with ABC-Paramount and started his recording career as the leader of his band. In 1957, he moved to Paris, where he studied composition and theory with Nadia Boulanger and Olivier Messiaen and performed at the Paris Olympia. Jones became music director at Barclay, a French record company (and the licensee for Mercury in France).
In the 1950s, Jones toured Europe with several jazz orchestras. As musical director of Harold Arlen's jazz musical Free and Easy, he took to the road again. With musicians from the Arlen show, he formed his big band, The Jones Boys, with eighteen musicians. The band included double bass player Eddie Jones and trumpeter Reunald Jones. None of the three were related. The band toured North America and Europe, and the concerts met enthusiastic audiences and sparkling reviews, but the earnings failed to support a band of this size. Poor budget planning resulted in an economic disaster. The band dissolved, leaving Jones in a financial crisis. "We had the best jazz band on the planet, and yet we were literally starving. That's when I discovered that there was, and there was the . If I were to survive, I would have to learn the difference between the two." Irving Green, head of Mercury, helped Jones with a personal loan and a job as musical director of the company's New York division. He worked with Doug Moody, founder of Mystic Records.
Career, Business, and Investments
Quincy Jones's career was marked by groundbreaking achievements:
- Music Production: He produced Michael Jackson's albums Off the Wall, Thriller, and Bad, resulting in over 150 million records sold. His work with artists like Frank Sinatra, Lesley Gore, and Ray Charles further solidified his legacy.
- Film and Television: Jones composed for films and TV shows, including "The Color Purple" and "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," which launched Will Smith's career.
- Business Ventures: His investments in real estate included his Bel Air mansion, valued at $60 million.
Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (March 14, 1933 – November 3, 2024) was an American record producer, composer, arranger, conductor, trumpeter, and bandleader. Over the course of his seven-decade career, he received many accolades including 28 Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Tony Award as well as nominations for seven Academy Awards and four Golden Globe Awards.
Jones composed numerous film scores including for The Pawnbroker (1965), In the Heat of the Night (1967), In Cold Blood (1967), The Italian Job (1969), The Wiz (1978), and The Color Purple (1985). He won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series for the miniseries Roots (1977). He received a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical as a producer for the revival of The Color Purple (2016).
Throughout his career he was the recipient of numerous honorary awards including the Grammy Legend Award in 1992, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1995, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2001, the National Medal of the Arts in 2011, the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2014, and the Academy Honorary Award in June 2024. He was named one of the most influential jazz musicians of the 20th century by Time.
In 1961, Jones was promoted and became the vice-president of Mercury, the first African American to hold the position. In 1963 he had his first number 1 record with "It's My Party" by Lesley Gore. At the invitation of director Sidney Lumet, he composed music for The Pawnbroker (1964). It was the first of his nearly 40 major motion picture scores. Following the success of The Pawnbroker, Jones left Mercury and moved to Los Angeles. After composing film scores for Mirage and The Slender Thread in 1965, he was in constant demand as a composer.
His film credits over the next seven years came to include Walk, Don't Run, The Deadly Affair, In Cold Blood, In the Heat of the Night, Mackenna's Gold, The Italian Job, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, Cactus Flower, The Out-of-Towners, They Call Me Mister Tibbs!, The Anderson Tapes, $ (Dollars), and The Getaway. He 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 1978, he produced the soundtrack for The Wiz, the musical adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, which starred Michael Jackson and Diana Ross. While working on The Wiz, Jackson asked Jones to recommend some producers for his upcoming solo album. Jones offered some names but eventually offered to produce the record himself. Jackson accepted and the resulting record, Off the Wall, sold about 20 million copies. This made Jones the most powerful record producer in the industry at that time. Jones and Jackson's next collaboration, Thriller, sold 65 million copies and became the highest-selling album of all time. The rise of MTV and the advent of music videos as promotional tools also contributed to Thriller 's sales. 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 Jones are included in the 2001 special editions of Off the Wall, Thriller, and Bad.
In 1990, Quincy Jones Productions joined with Time Warner to create Quincy Jones Entertainment (QJE). The company signed a 10-picture deal with Warner Bros. and a two-series deal with NBC Productions, now Universal Television. The television show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (Will Smith's first acting credit) began in 1990, while In the House (on NBC and UPN) aired from 1995 to 1999. Jones also produced first-run syndication's The Jenny Jones Show (in association with Telepictures Productions, 1994–1997 only) and FOX's Mad TV, which ran for 14 seasons. In the early 1990s, he started a huge, ongoing project called "The Evolution of Black Music". QJE started a weekly talk show with Jones's friend, Reverend Jesse Jackson, as the host.
In 1993, 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. During the same year, he and Salzman renamed his company to Quincy Jones/David Salzman Entertainment.
On January 6, 2009, Jones appeared on NBC's Last Call with Carson Daly to discuss his career. Daly informally floated the idea that Jones should become the first minister of culture for the United States, pending the inauguration of Barack Obama as president. Daly noted that only the US and Germany, among leading world countries, did not have a cabinet-level position for this role. Commentators on NPR and in the Chronicle of Higher Education also discussed the topic of a minister of culture.
In July 2007, Jones partnered with Wizzard Media to start the Quincy Jones Video Podcast. In each episode, he shares his knowledge and experience in the music industry. The first episode features him in the studio producing "I Knew I Loved You" for Celine Dion. This song is included on the Ennio Morricone tribute album We All Love Ennio Morricone. Jones helped produce Anita Hall's 2009 album Send Love. In 2013, he produced Emily Bear's album Diversity. After that, he produced albums for Grace, Justin Kauflin, Alfredo Rodríguez, Andreas Varady, and Nikki Yanofsky. He also became a mentor to Jacob Collier.
In 2010, Jones, along with brand strategist Chris Vance, co-founded Playground Sessions, a NY City-based developer of subscription software that teaches people to play the piano using interactive videos. Pianists Harry Connick Jr. and David Sides are among the company's video instructors. Jones worked with Vance and Sides to develop the video lessons and incorporate techniques to modernize the instruction format.
Jones's social activism began in the 1960s with his support of Martin Luther King Jr. Jones was one of the founders of the Institute for Black American Music (IBAM), whose events aimed to raise funds for the creation of a national library of African-American art and music. Jones was also one of the founders of the Black Arts Festival in his hometown of Chicago. In the 1970s, Jones formed the Quincy Jones Workshops. Meeting at the Los Angeles Landmark Variety Arts Center, the workshops educated and honed the skills of inner-city youth in musicianship, acting, and songwriting. Among its alumni were Alton McClain, who had a hit song with Alton McClain and Destiny, and Mark Wilkins, who co-wrote the hit song "Havin' a Love Attack" with Mandrill and became National Promotion Director for Mystic Records.
For many years, Jones worked closely with Bono of U2 on a number of philanthropic causes. He 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. One of the organization's programs was an intercultural exchange between underprivileged youths from Los Angeles and South Africa.
Jones supported a number of other charities, including the NAACP, GLAAD, Peace Games, AmfAR, and the Maybach Foundation. He served on the advisory board of HealthCorps. In July 2007, he announced his endorsement of Hillary Clinton for president. With the election of Barack Obama, Jones said that his next conversation "with President Obama [will be] to beg for a secretary of arts". This prompted the circulation of an internet petition, asking Obama to create such a Cabinet-level position in his administration.
In October 2013, the BBC and The Hollywood Reporter said Jones planned to sue Michael Jackson's estate for $10 million. 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 Jones produced for Jackson were used in the film This Is It. 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. He believed he should have received a producer credit in the film.
President Joe Biden issued a statement praising Jones as "a great unifier, who believed deeply in the healing power of music to restore hope and uplift those suffering from hunger, poverty, and violence, in America and the continent of Africa". Former President Barack Obama praised Jones for "building a career that took him from the streets of Chicago to the heights of Hollywood... paving the way for generations of Black executives to leave their mark on the entertainment business". Former President Bill Clinton stated, "He changed the face of the music industry forever". Vice President Kamala Harris called him a "trailblazer" and remembered him for his "championing of civil and human rights".
Social Network
Quincy Jones maintained a strong presence in the entertainment industry, but his personal social media profiles are less documented compared to his professional influence. However, his legacy continues to be celebrated through tributes and documentaries.
Jones produced all four million-selling singles for Lesley Gore during the early and mid-1960s, including "It's My Party" (UK No. 8; US No. 1), its sequel "Judy's Turn to Cry" (US No. 5), "She's a Fool" (also a US No. 5) in 1963, and "You Don't Own Me" (US No. 2 for four weeks in 1964). He continued to produce for Gore until 1966, including notable hits like "That's the Way Boys Are" (US No. 12 in 1964), the Greenwich/Barry hits "Look of Love" (US No. 27 in 1965) and "Maybe I Know" (UK No. 20; US No. 14 in 1964), "Sunshine, Lollipops And Rainbows" (No. 13 in 1965), and "My Town, My Guy And Me" (No. 32 in 1965). In 1975, Jones founded Qwest Productions, for which he arranged and produced successful albums by Frank Sinatra and others. He also reunited with Lesley Gore that year, producing her critically acclaimed album Love Me By Name, released on A&M Records.
After the 1985 American Music Awards ceremony, Jones used his influence to draw most of the major American recording artists of the day into a studio to record the song "We Are the World" to raise money for the victims of famine in Ethiopia. When people marveled at his ability to make the collaboration work, Jones explained that he had taped a sign on the entrance reading "Check Your Ego at the Door". He was also 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, Jones started off Qwest Entertainment to produce theatrical feature films, through Qwest Film and Television. He launched a home video label, Qwest Home Video, in order to manage the home video titles made by the studio. Qwest Entertainment continued to operate their pre-existing subsidiaries like Qwest Records, Quincy Jones Productions and Qwest Music Publishing.
In February 2014, Jones appeared in Keep on Keepin' On, a documentary about his friend, jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player Clark Terry. In the film, Terry introduces Jones to his protégé Justin Kauflin, whom Jones then signs to his band and label. In July 2014, Jones starred in a documentary film called The Distortion of Sound. He was featured on Jacob Collier's YouTube cover of Michael Jackson's "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)". On February 28, 2016, he and Pharrell Williams presented Ennio Morricone with the Oscar for Best Original Score. In August 2016, he and his music were featured at the BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall, London. In 2017, Jones and French producer Reza Ackbaraly started Qwest TV, the world's first subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service for jazz and eclectic music from around the world. The platform features a handpicked selection of ad-free concerts, interviews, documentaries, and exclusive, original content, all in HD or 4K.
Education
Quincy Jones's early education is not extensively detailed, but his musical training began at a young age. He attended the Berklee College of Music (then known as the Schillinger House of Music) before dropping out to pursue a career in music.
This article encapsulates the enduring impact of Quincy Jones on the music and entertainment industries, highlighting his achievements and financial legacy at the time of his passing in 2024.
Jones earned a scholarship to Seattle University in 1951. After one semester, he transferred to what is now the Berklee College of Music in Boston on another scholarship, where he played at Izzy Ort's Bar & Grille with Bunny Campbell and Preston Sandiford, whom he cited as important influences.
