Quincy Jones

Quincy Delightt Jones Jr. was born March 14, 1933, in Chicago. He is a conductor, composer, arranger, producer, and instrumentalist. He plays many instruments including the trumpet, drums, french horn, and piano. He studied at the Berklee College of Music. Jones has won various awards for his productions. In 1968, he became the first African Americans to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song, their selection “The Eyes of Love” for the Universal Pictures film Banning. That same year, Jones was the first African American to be nominated twice within the same year for an Academy Award for Best Original Score, as he was also nominated for his work on the 1967 film In Cold Blood. He produced Micheal Jackson’s albums Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982), and Bad (1987), as well as the producer and conductor of the 1985 charity song “We Are the World,” which raised funds for victims. In 2013, he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. He also worked in the production of “The Wiz”, “The Color Purple”, and “The Fresh Prince of Belair. “Quincy Jones received the Grammy’s Legend Award in 1991, the Humanitarian Award at the BET Awards in 2008, the John F. Kennedy Center Honors in 2001, the Los Angeles Press Club Visionary Award in 2014, and has received an honorary doctorate from the Royal Academy of Music, London, in 2015.