Quincy Jones was the Tom Brady of music; or maybe, it would be more accurate to call Tom Brady the Quincy Jones of football. Jones was the Greatest of all Time.
Quincy was a musician. He wrote music and television scores. He produced some of the most successful songs and albums of the 20th century and he herded cats.
Jones died November 3 at his home in the Bel-Air section of Los Angeles. No cause of death was given. He was 91.
Quincy Jones was 11 when he and his brother broke into a rec center looking for food. Instead, he found a standup piano. In a BBC documentary, he said that “God’s whispers made him touch it.” He went from a life of crime to a life of music.
The first instrument he learned was the trumpet. He started out playing with jazz bands. He worked with Frank Sinatra from 1958 until Sinatra died.
Then in 1965, Jones began composing for movies like “The Pawnbroker.” He scored “In The Heat of the Night,” “In Cold Blood” and “The Color Purple.” He wrote the TV show themes for “Sanford and Sons,” “Ironsides” and two Cosby shows.
His reputation as a music producer grew in the 1960s. He produced four million-seller singles for Leslie Gore. He met Michael Jackson in 1978 and produced three of his albums, including “Thriller,” the best-selling album of all time.
Maybe his greatest achievement was corralling more than 40 of the biggest rock and pop stars into a studio for one night leaving their egos at the door to record “We Are The World.”
He wrote our Song of the Day, “Soul Bossa Nova,” in 1962 during the Brazilian music craze. He said it took 20 minutes. The song lives on as the opening dance scene of “Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery.”
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