Pop Music Legend, Quincy Jones Passes Away at 91 Years Old

Representative Versatile Artist of the 20th Century
Born in Chicago in 1933
Started Life as a Musician in His Teens

Quincy Jones, a giant in the American pop music industry, passed away on the 3rd (local time) at the age of 91.

According to major foreign media, Jones's publicist Arnold Robinson reported that he died that night at his home in Los Angeles, surrounded by his family.

His family stated in a press release that his passing is "an enormous loss to our family, but we celebrate the great life he lived" and "we know that there will never be another figure like him."

Quincy Jones

The exact cause of Jones's death has not been disclosed.

Jones is regarded as a versatile music producer, composer, and film and television program producer representing the 20th century. He notably produced Michael Jackson's iconic albums "Off The Wall," "Thriller," and "Bad," earning Jackson the title "King of Pop." He also created "USA for Africa," which included the charity song "We Are the World" for African relief.

Born in 1933 in Chicago, he moved to Washington state with his father after his parents' divorce and began his musical career in earnest as a teenager. At 14, he played trumpet in a band with legendary musician Ray Charles at a club in Seattle, and later expanded his musical world in Boston and New York.

In 1958, he met Frank Sinatra and worked together until Sinatra's final album in 1984, "LA Is My Lady." He also gained further fame by working on albums with other famous jazz artists such as Clifford Brown and Duke Ellington.

He was active not only as a producer but also in musicals, film scores, and television program production. Notably, in 1985, he co-produced the musical film "The Color Purple" with Steven Spielberg, achieving great success. A famous anecdote from that time is that he personally cast Oprah Winfrey, who was then a talk show host in Chicago, as an actress. Building on the success of "The Color Purple," he founded the film and TV production company "Quincy Jones Entertainment" in 1990.

He won an Emmy Award for "Roots," which depicted the lives of Black slaves and their descendants, and received two honorary Academy Awards.

He was married three times during his lifetime and had seven children. Actress Rashida Jones is one of his daughters.