Music maestro Quincy Jones, celebrated for his collaborations with Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra and many others, has died at 91.
Jones’ publicist, Arnold Robinson, said he “passed away peacefully” on Sunday night at his home in Bel Air.
“Tonight, with full but broken hearts, we must share the news of our father and brother Quincy Jones’ passing. And although this is an incredible loss for our family, we celebrate the great life that he lived and know there will never be another like him,” the family said in a statement.
Jones was best known as the producer of Michael Jackson’s Thriller album.
Jones also produced the classic, “We are the world” based on which the Netflix documentary, “Best night in Pop”, was produced.
Over his career that spanned more than 75 years, he won 28 Grammy awards and was named as one of the most influential jazz musicians of the 20th century by Time magazine.
He worked closely with Frank Sinatra early in his career and reworked the crooner’s classic Fly Me To The Moon, taking it from a waltz to a swing.
In the film The Wiz, Jones found himself working alongside a 19-year-old Michael Jackson. He went on to produce Jackson’s album Off the Wall which sold 20 million copies.
He also produced the pop star’s follow-ups, Thriller and Bad.
In 1985, Jones gathered 46 of America’s most popular singers of the time, including Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner and Cyndi Lauper to record We Are the World.
Jones co-wrote the song to raise money for those suffering from a devastating famine in Ethiopia.
The record was the US equivalent to Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas.
The hit reached number one in the UK and the US and was performed at Live Aid.
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