Quincy Delight Jones Jr. was born on 14 March 1933 in Chicago, Illinois, and moved with his family to Seattle as a child, where he began playing trumpet and performing with musicians including a teenage Ray Charles before studying at Boston's Berklee School of Music.
Jones built an extraordinary early career as a jazz arranger and bandleader, working with Dizzy Gillespie and Count Basie, before moving into film scoring and becoming one of the first Black executives at a major American record label as a vice president at Mercury Records in the 1960s.
Jones composed scores for numerous films and television series, and by the 1970s had become one of the most sought-after producers in popular music, working across genres from jazz to soul to pop with an unmatched breadth of musical fluency.
Jones produced Michael Jackson's albums Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad, with Thriller becoming the best-selling album in history, and in 1985 produced and conducted the charity single 'We Are the World', bringing together dozens of the era's biggest musical stars for African famine relief.
Across a career spanning seven decades, Jones won 28 Grammy Awards, among the most of any individual in history, and continued working as a producer, composer and cultural entrepreneur, including founding Vibe magazine, until his death in 2024.
- Produced Michael Jackson's Thriller, the best-selling album in history
- Won 28 Grammy Awards across a seven-decade career
- Produced and conducted the 1985 charity single 'We Are the World'
- Among the first Black executives at a major American record label
- Founded Vibe magazine
- Versatility across genres can multiply influence. Jones's fluency across jazz, film scoring and pop production let him shape multiple eras of American music.
- Great work can also mobilise for great causes. Jones used his standing in the industry to bring together dozens of stars for African famine relief through 'We Are the World'.