Get the latest gossip

Quincy Jones, Peerless Music Producer Behind ‘Thriller,’ Dead at 91

Quincy Jones, the musician-producer whose work was on several of the biggest pop LPs of the century, has died at TK

But by the time Jones got to Jackson he had already carved a path through jazz and early Sixties bubblegum pop and numerous film scores, studied with the famous classical composition teacher Nadia Boulanger, arranged records for Ray Charles and conducted Frank Sinatra’s band. As a result, Jones collaborated with Betty Carter, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Little Richard, Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, Donny Hathaway, Minnie Ripperton, Al Jarreau, Luther Vandross, Chaka Khan, Michael Jackson, James Ingram and Tamia, among others. As a quadruple threat capable of writing a song, arranging it, conducting a band through a session, and producing the recording to boot, his name started to appear in the credits of albums from titans in jazz: Cannonball Adderley, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, Sarah Vaughan and Dinah Washington.

Get the Android app