March 14, 1933
Quincy Jones was born in Chicago.
His trumpet play won him a scholarship to the prestigious Berklee College of Music. Time magazine named him one of the most influential jazz musicians of the 20th century, and his gift for arranging songs made him sought after as an arranger, a musical director and a producer.
Jones has received a record 79 Grammy nominations, which includes 28 wins. Jones also showed a talent for scoring films, starting with the 1964 film, “The Pawnbroker,” breaking through many color barriers. In 1968, he became the first Black American nominated twice within the same year for an Academy Award for Best Original Score. In 1995, he received the Academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for his charity work.
In 2013, he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Two years later, his daughter, Rashida Jones, produced an award-winning documentary that detailed his life from battling poverty on Chicago’s South Side to producing some of the world’s most beloved music.
Jones died Nov. 3, 2024, at the age of 91.
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