Music titan Quincy Jones, legendary producer of Michael Jackson's 'Thriller,' dies at 91

Quincy Jones, best known as the architect of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and the man who made stars collide for 1985's "We Are the World," had a long career as a composer and trumpeter who broke down racial boundaries in music and film.

Jones died on Sunday, his publicist said. He was 91.

Jones won an astonishing 28 Grammy Awards throughout his career as an arranger and producer, and his legacy intersected with those of Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington and Lesley Gore.

Born March 14, 1933, to Sarah and Quincy Delight Jones, he and his younger brother, Lloyd, grew up in gang-riddled Great Depression Chicago. His mother suffered from mental illness and was institutionalized when he was 5, and his father moved the family to Bremerton, Washington.

When he was 11, Jones broke into the Armory recreation center in Bremerton to steal food. Inside, he found an upright piano. As he would later say in interviews, this was the moment that led him from a childhood of petty crime to a life of music.

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His chance encounter with the piano led Jones to try a medley of instruments before settling on the trumpet. By age 14, he was playing the club circuit with 16-year-old friend Ray Charles, freewheeling from jazz to big band to bebop. After high school, Jones toured the world with jazz greats Lionel Hampton and Dizzy Gillespie.

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This whirlwind life as a traveling musician deposited Jones, who was broke, back in the States in 1961. He repaid his debts by working at Mercury Records, where he was eventually promoted to vice president at the otherwise white company.

When dreams of scoring films lured Jones to Hollywood in 1965, executives were shocked to learn he was Black after they’d hired him for the Gregory Peck film "Mirage." He soon racked up two Oscar nominations (best original song for "The Love of Ivy" and best original score for the film "In Cold Blood") in 1968 and became the first Black musical director at the Academy Awards in 1971. He would executive produce the show in 1996.

Yet Jones suffered from health problems. He had two nearly fatal brain aneurysms in 1974. The resulting metal plate in his head ensured he would never play trumpet again. Yet he continued making music, scoring "The Bill Cosby Show," "Sanford and Son" and the 1977 miniseries "Roots," for which he won an Emmy.

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Then, while scoring the film "The Wiz," Jones met Jackson. He produced Jackson's "Off the Wall" album in 1979, ascending to music royalty alongside the King of Pop in a partnership that also generated mega-sellers "Thriller" and "Bad." In 1985, the pair collaborated on the star-studded charity song "We Are the World," which won three Grammys.

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He co-produced "The Color Purple" and helped introduce Oprah Winfrey to a national audience (He also produced the Broadway version). In 2013, Winfrey induct Jones into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

His name appears as a producer, composer, conductor, arranger, or performer on more than 400 albums. He composed roughly 35 film scores.

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Jones leaves behind seven children: Jolie Jones Levine (with former wife, actress Jeri Caldwell), Martina Jones and Quincy Jones III (with second wife, model Ulla Andersson), Kidada Jones and "The Office" actress Rashida Jones (with third wife, "Mod Squad" actress Peggy Lipton), Rachel Jones (with Carol Reynolds) and Kenya Julia Miambi Sarah Jones (with actress Nastassja Kinski).

In his later years, the force that propelled Jones from jazz musician to music mogul never seemed to die out. He formed the production company responsible for "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air." He published an autobiography in 2001. He partnered with Lionel Richie for a second installment of "We Are The World" after the Haiti earthquake in 2010.

In 2018, daughter Rashida and director Alan Hicks chronicled Jones' generation- and genre-spanning career in the Netflix documentary "Quincy." Rashida called the two-hour film "a starter pack," saying she shot 800 hours of footage and worked through 2,000 hours of archives. 

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"He’s lived such a big life," Rashida told USA TODAY in a joint interview with Jones at the time. "I just cannot believe all of this experience is contained in this one human being who just happens to be my dad."

Jones, who admitted to tears every time he's seen the film, said the message of his life comes through in the movie: family, love and keeping perspective.

"Don't never give up," he said. "Keep the humility with the creativity. And grace with the success. Just because you're behind a No. 1 record does not make you better than anybody."

This story has been updated to include additional information.

Contributing: Bryan Alexander; Reuters.