Jones, Quincy

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.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.