Quincy Jones, music giant behind the hits of Michael Jackson and Frank Sinatra, among others, dies

He died at 91 years old Quincy Jones, one of the most important music producers in the history of pop.

The legendary Quincy Jones It was the part of the iceberg that is not seen in some of the most fabulous and well-known icebergs in modern music. That huge hidden part. The immense Quincy Jones: the archetype of the shadow genius who, with sensational talent, was capable of propelling great and at the same time popular (million-dollar popular) music into the stratosphere.

How to summarize the legacy of Quincy Jones? He was nominated for the Grammy Award 80 times (no one has more nominations), of which he won 27. He was above all the shadow architect of Off The Wall (1979), Thriller (1982) y Bad (1987) by Michael Jacksonbut also composer of famous and award-winning soundtracks for film and television, collaborator with jazz and rhythm and blues icons such as Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald,Ray Charles and hundreds of other artists, and conductor of the most stellar pop orchestra in history, the charity song We Are the World of 1985.

Quincy Jones died Sunday night at his home in Los Angeles in the Bel Air area, surrounded by his family, according to his representative, Arnold Robinson.

“Tonight, with a full but broken heart, we must share the news of the passing of our father and brother Quincy Jones,” the family said in a statement. “And while this represents an incredible loss for our family, We celebrate the great life he lived and know there will never be another like him.“.

His three albums with Michael Jackson They are capital history of pop music, a cycle of work in which Jones showed not only his creative talent, but an overwhelming instinct to create popular and at the same time fabulous music. The figures are unmatched: Off the Wall It was an instant success and has already accumulated around 20 million copies sold in the US; Thriller It immediately became the album of a generation, an iconic album that is still the best-selling in history, with some 70 million copies; after them he followed Badwith Jackson as the biggest musical star in the world, of which some 45 million copies have been sold.

Three historic albums for their sales, but also for their musical quality, in which Quincy Jones was transcendental as the architect of that sound that turned an astute pop combination of funk, R&B, synth electronics, rock and disco. That sound and its relevance had (continue to have) an overwhelming influence on black music in the US, and phenomena such as the R&B boom in the early 2000s could not be explained without the songs of that immortal trilogy.

Of jazz to the universe

The charismatic and lively Quincy Jones was born in Chicago on March 14, 1933. He began his musical career as an arranger in the early 1950s and did not stop working until a few years ago. An incredible seven-decade career whose achievements do not fit into an obituary, but rather deserve, much more than most stars, an entire book.

Settling in New York at the beginning of the 1950s, from that first moment he was brilliant in the literal sense of the word, inventive and with a captivating personality. Composer, arranger, producer and orchestra director, he was decisive in his beginnings in the jazzwhen he contributed a breath of fresh air to the recordings of leading artists such as Miles Davies, Count Basie, Cannonball Adderley, Lionel Hampton, Dizzy Gillespie, Art Farmer, Clifford Brown and Tommy Dorsey, and to glorious singers such as Frank Sinatra himself (already in the 60s, the Sinatra of Reprise, mature and boss rat pack in Las Vegas), Sarah Vaughan or Dinah Washington. He had not yet turned 30 and was already collaborating with both old legends and young innovators.a perfect example of his creative versatility.

At the age of 24 he settled for a time in Pariswas hired by the important Barclay label and was a producer and arranger on some recordings by the titans of the chanson Jacques Brel and Charles Aznavour.

The boy was so impressive that in 1961 he became the first black executive in the US recording industrywhen he was named vice president of the Mercury label. That step took him away from jazz towards pop (he was an arranger for Ray Charles at his peak of popularity and for Paul Simon after his breakup with Art Garfunkel) and he soon entered a new field: soundtracks. In 1963 he composed the music for The lender by Sidney Lumet, the first of more than thirty scores of Hollywood (including wonders like In the heat of the night, In cold blood, The Italian Job -to by Michael Caine- o The color purple).

In 1974, Quincy Jones’ body collapsed after 40 years of living intensely night and day. He passed a aneurisma cerebral and that convinced him to lower the intensity of his agenda. He began to choose his works more and musically concentrated on modern black music, especially R&B. He did it both as a producer of mega-hits for the group Rufus alongside the glorious Chaka Khan, and with his solo career.

Although best known for his collaborative work with other artists, Quincy Jones also recorded dozens of albums as a solo artistsome of them fabulous artistic and commercial achievements such as Walking in Space (1969), Body Heat (1974), Sounds…And Stuff Like That!! (1978) y The Dude (1981).

In the 80s, at the peak of his popularity, he was also producer of the charity song We Are the Worldco-written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie to combat famine in Ethiopia. It was also a mega-success: more than 20 million copies were sold. singles and it is still one of the 10 most successful singles in pop history.

Pivotal figure of American music and the music industry, he entered the 90s sponsoring Will Smith: Jones was co-executive producer of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and co-wrote its title song (“Out west in Philly, I grew up and lived/Not paying much attention to the police…”); In addition, his daughters served as inspiration for the characters of Will Smith’s cousins.

In 2001 he published a autobiography must read, Q: Autobiography of Quincy Jones (published in Spain by Libros del Kultrum). A man with a troubled life, in it he probably tells only a tenth of what deserved to be told, a tip of the enormous icerberg that was Quincy Jones.