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RIP Quincy Jones.

southernhybrid

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2024/11/04/quincy-jones-producer-dead/

One of my favorite jazz artists and musical producers has died. At least he had a long, productive life and his music will live on.

From bebop to hip-hop, Quincy Jones exemplified the producer and arranger as star. He elevated the voices of dozens of entertainers — most indelibly Michael Jackson, but also Frank Sinatra, Paul Simon and Aretha Franklin — with his unsurpassed artistry in combining jazz, rhythm-and-blues and classical orchestration.

By the time of his death on Nov. 3 at 91 at his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles, he had become a renaissance impresario of music, film and television, catapulting the careers of Oprah Winfrey and Will Smith and smashing barriers for other African Americans. Mr. Jones’s death, of undisclosed causes, was announced by his publicist, Arnold Robinson, and in a family statement.

Mr. Jones’s six-decade career was nothing short of Zelig-like. He brimmed with anecdotes about his encounters with figures from Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl to Sinatra to the rap star Tupac Shakur, who was engaged to one of Mr. Jones’s daughters before his murder in 1996.
 
The guy was really the definition of a renaissance man, at least when it comes to music. I didn't realize the mark he left on music until later in life, though. I think my first introduction to him was in the early '70's when we used to watch Sanford and Son (my dad's favorite show at time, along with Wall Street Week ). I was about 11 years old and my mom said, "Whoever composed that theme song is a genius. It's perfect for a junkman." Later, after he became famous with producing Michael Jackson's records, I noticed his name on the credits while watching an old rerun. He was married to Peggy Lipton from The Mod Squad who was a bit of childhood crush for me.
 
The other day, I dragged out two boxes of CDs that contained all of Quincy's jazz from the early 60s. It helped soothe us the morning after the election. Yeah. He was one of those rare musical geniuses.
 
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