Photo by Greg Gorman

Producer, songwriter, composer, arranger, and musician Quincy Jones has passed away at the age of 91. The icon died November 3rd at his Bel Air home in Los Angeles.

Considered to be one of the most impactful producers in music history, Quincy Jones has worked with the likes of Michael Jackson, Ray Charles, Little Richard, Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, and the list continues.

Born in Chicago, Quincy Jones got his early start in the jazz scene in the early 1950s touring with Lionel Hampton in Europe. By the mid-50s, he had taken on a gig as a house trumpeter for the CBS television show Stage Show with jazz siblings Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey. This would included playing a part in the backing band for an early Elvis Presley on one of the shows. By the 1960s Jones had worked with Dizzie Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Bob James, Sarah Vaughan, and more. While he would go on to work with seminal acts the following decade, Quincy Jones developed at brain aneurysm in 1974 which would force him to stop playing trumpet. However, five years later he would begin delivering three back to back mountainous pop records with Michael Jackson’s 1979 LP Off the Wall, Thriller, which landed in 1982, and the 1987 hit Bad.

With a history of film scoring since the early 60s, as well television scoring with entities such as The Bill Cosby Show in the late 60s – early 70s, The multifaceted Jones also had success writing the film score for Steven Spielberg’s 1985 movie The Color Purple. He would also go on to be one of the executive producers from the hit TV show The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, which from from 1990 to 1996.

Quincy Jones is survived by his seven children Jolie Jones Levine, Rashida Jones, Kidada Jones, Quincy Jones III, Martina Jones, Kenya Kinski-Jones, and Rachel Jones.