Jones, Quincy (Quincy Delight Jones, Jr.), 1933–, African-American musician, composer, bandleader, and music executive, b. Chicago. Jones played trumpet and sang gospel growing up, and studied briefly at Boston's Berklee College of Music (then called Schillinger House). After 1951 he played with Lionel Hampton Hampton, Lionel, 1908?–2002, African-American vibraphonist and bandleader, b. Louisville, Ky. When his family moved to Chicago c.1916, the young Hampton began playing drums in a newsboys' band.
..... Click the link for more information. and Dizzy Gillespie Gillespie, Dizzy (John Birks Gillespie) (gəlĕs`pē), 1917–93, American jazz musician and composer, b. Cheraw, S.C.
..... Click the link for more information. and was also an arranger for such jazz greats as Duke Ellington Ellington, Duke (Edward Kennedy Ellington), 1899–1974, American jazz musician and composer, b. Washington, D.C. Ellington made his first professional appearance as a jazz pianist in 1916.
..... Click the link for more information. , Tommy Dorsey Dorsey, Thomas Andrew (dôr`sē), 1899–1993, American gospel musician, b. Villa Rica, Ga.
..... Click the link for more information. , Count Basie Basie, Count (William Basie) (bā`sē), 1904–84, American jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer, b. Red Bank, N.J.
..... Click the link for more information. , and his childhood friend Ray Charles Charles, Ray (Ray Charles Robinson), 1930–2004, African-American musician and composer, b. Albany, Ga. Blinded at age seven, he was raised in Florida and at 16 began singing in a local hillbilly group.
..... Click the link for more information. . Jones traveled to Paris in 1957, where he studied composition with Nadia Boulanger Boulanger, Nadia (nädyä` b
..... Click the link for more information. and Olivier Messiaen Messiaen, Olivier (ôlēvyā` mĕsyäN`), 1908–92, French composer and organist, b. Avignon.
..... Click the link for more information. , became music director for Mercury Records' French division, and briefly (1960–61) led a big band.

Returning to New York in the early 1960s, Jones became a vice president at Mercury, breaking the executive color barrier there. He also began to compose for films and television, including scores for The Pawnbroker (1965), In Cold Blood (1967), and The Wiz (1978). He coproduced the film The Color Purple (1985) and was responsible for several TV sitcoms. From 1979 to 1987 he produced Michael Jackson Jackson, Michael Joseph, 1958–, American performer, b. Gary, Ind. Jackson is known as a superb dancer and pop singer, often conveying an androgynous image and an ambiguous sexuality, but offstage he has become known for various alleged eccentricities, for his
..... Click the link for more information. 's chartbuster albums, catapulting the singer to superstardom. Jones also founded (1980) a record company, established (1990) Vibe magazine, and formed (1991) Qwest Broacasting.

Bibliography

See his autobiography (2001).

Jones, Quincy

orig. Quincy Delight Jones, Jr.

(born March 14, 1933, Chicago, Ill., U.S.) U.S. composer, bandleader, and producer. Jones joined a combo with his friend Ray Charles in his early teens, and he later studied music in Seattle and Boston. In the early 1950s he played trumpet with Lionel Hampton. He became an arranger for Dizzy Gillespie and others and ultimately formed his own big band and worked with figures such as Count Basie, Sarah Vaughan, and Dinah Washington. In the early 1960s he began writing scores for films, including Walk Don't Run (1966), In Cold Blood (1967), and The Color Purple (1985). Beginning in the mid-1970s he principally worked as a producer, and among his projects were enormously successful albums for Michael Jackson and Frank Sinatra. By the early 21st century, Jones had won more than 25 Grammy Awards. He also founded the music magazine Vibe and the record label Qwest.

Jones, Quincy (Delight, Jr.) (1933– ) composer, record producer; born in Chicago. A multifaceted jazz and pop figure, he began with his Seattle teenage friend Ray Charles, who interested him in arranging. He played trumpet and arranged for Lionel Hampton between 1951—53, then worked as a free-lance arranger on numerouous jazz sessions. He served as musical director for Dizzy Gillespie's overseas big band tour in 1956, worked for Barclay Records in Paris from 1957–58, and led an all-star big band for the European production of Harold Arlen's blues opera, Free and Easy (1959). Returning to New York, he composed and arranged for Count Basie, Dinah Washington, and Sarah Vaughan while holding an executive post at Mercury Records and producing his own increasingly pop-oriented records. In the mid-1960s he began composing for films and television, eventually producing over 50 scores and serving as a trailblazing African-American musician in the Hollywood arena. In 1975 he founded Qwest Productions, for which he arranged and produced hugely successful albums by Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, and other pop figures.