Quincy Jones
When you are born with the name “Delight,” you must live up to your name – at least that is what Quincy Delight Jones, Jr. has done. As arranger, composer, or producer, Jones has helped create the music of Count Basie, Ray Charles, Miles Davis, Aretha Franklin, Leslie Gore, Michael Jackson, Peggy Lee, Little Richard, Paul Simon, and Frank Sinatra, to name but a few. Born in Chicago in 1933, Jones was playing trumpet for Tommy Dorsey and then Lionel Hampton when he began to arrange music. He moved to Paris to study with the well-known classical mentor, Nadia Boulanger. While in Paris, Jones produced and arranged recordings for Jacques Brel and Charles Aznavour. In 1961, he was hired by Mercury Records, becoming the first African-American executive at a US recording company. In addition to his work as producer, Jones has composed scores for films (Pawnbroker, In Cold Blood, Heat of the Night, Anderson Tapes, Getaway), and theme songs for television (Ironside, Sanford and Son, the Bill Cosby Show). He has also produced film (the adaptation of Alice Walker’s The Color Purple), and television (the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air with Will Smith, and MADtv). The producing force behind Michael Jackson’s and Lionel Richie’s “We Are the World,” Jones is also the entrepreneur of VIBE magazine and Qwest Broadcasting, as well as owner of Spin magazine. Winner of twenty-six Grammys (and counting), Jones was presented with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the 1994 Academy Awards. His arrangement of “Fly Me to the Moon” was the first song played (at least by humans) during Armstrong’s and Aldrin’s 1969 mission on the moon.
