Biography
Born in Chicago, African-American composer/musician Quincy Jones grew up in Seattle. An alumnus of both the Berklee School and Boston's Schillinger school of music, the 17-year-old Jones became a trumpeter/arranger for Dizzy Gillespie, then toured with
Lionel Hampton before organizing his own band. From the late '50s through 1968, Jones held down executive posts at Barclay Records of Paris and Mercury Records of Hollywood. The first of Jones' jazz-dominated movie scores was for 1965's
The Pawnbroker; subsequent film assignments included
In Cold Blood (1967),
In the Heat of the Night (1967),
The Wiz (1978) and
The Color Purple (1984), which he co-produced. Equally active on the small screen, Jones composed theme and incidental music for the TV series
I Spy and
Ironside, and in 1978 won an Emmy for his work on the monumental miniseries
Roots. A pioneer in the realm of music video, Jones produced and arranged the blockbuster
Michael Jackson video
Thriller, which earned him one of his two dozen-plus Grammies. Jones also organized and produced the all-star benefit video
We Are the World, assembling a fantastic aggregation of top recording talent with the admonition "Check your vanity at the door." In 1990, Jones was the subject of the documentary film
Listen Up. Quincy Jones was honored with the Jean Hersholt humanitarian award at the 1995 Academy Awards celebration. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide