Legendary record producer and musician Quincy Jones dies at 91

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Quincy Jones, the famed music producer who helped artists dominate popular music for half a century, has died. His publicist says he passed away peacefully at his home in California. He was 91 years old.

("SOUL BOSSA NOVA")

MARTIN: That is "Soul Bossa Nova." Jones wrote it and first recorded it in 1962. As just one sign of his reach, three decades later, it became the signature sound of Mike Myers' hit comedy "Austin Powers." As we said, Jones was a producer but also a celebrity in his own right and a humanitarian. He made pop singles and high-concept albums, TV and film scores and more. NPR's Walter Ray Watson has this appreciation of a one-of-a-kind artist.

("BAD")

uincy Jones' music hooked ears, warmed hearts and moved feet to dance. Along with Michael Jackson, he broke open the pop music world with songs like these...

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BAD")

MICHAEL JACKSON: (Singing) Because I'm bad. I'm bad.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BILLIE JEAN")

MARTIN: (Singing) Bille Jean is not my lover.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ROCK WITH YOU")

JACKSON: (Singing) I want to rock with you all night.

WATSON: ...All produced by Quincy Jones. More than a hundred million records sold, including...

("THRILLER")

WATSON: ...That's right - "Thriller," the bestselling album of all time. Hard to imagine now, but record execs doubted whether Quincy Jones was the right fit to produce Michael Jackson's debut as a solo adult artist.

("HAPPY FEET")

WATSON: Jones' career started back in the 1950s, arranging, performing, producing. He made so many records with so many bands. It's possible you've heard lots of his tunes, never knowing they were his. Born Quincy Delight Jones Jr., he was the son of a Chicago carpenter and a housewife mother, who sang church songs at home. Jones faced gang violence as a child of the Great Depression. And at age 10, his family moved to Seattle, where his dad joined the war effort, working in a shipyard.

QUINCY JONES: Most of the days, he was gone at 6:30 or 7 o'clock, and so we were left to our own devices.

WATSON: Jones on NPR in 2001. As a kid, he was a ringleader of mischief. And one day with a bunch of boys, he targeted a roomful of freshly baked pies at a rec center. They broke in, ate all the pies. Then Jones opened a door.

JONES: And I saw - in the shadows, I saw a piano. Then I almost closed the door, and then something deep inside me said, open the door again. And I went back into the room and slowly went over to that piano, and I felt the goose bumps and everything.

WATSON: That changed my life, he said. By high school, Jones picked up the trumpet. Soon after, he gained a lifelong friend in a blind 16-year-old pianist.

JONES: Ray was very generous with me and teached (ph) me how to read music and braille.

WATSON: Ray Charles also taught Jones the basics of arranging.

JONES: From the very first moment, I understood the concept that four trombones or four trumpets, separately or collectively - syncopation without the same notes. It just - something about it just fascinated me. And I knew that's where I wanted to live the rest of my life.

WATSON: Quincy Jones was still a teenager when he was hired by legendary vibist and band leader Lionel Hampton. His talents opened the door. His skills took him everywhere.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I COULD WRITE A BOOK")

DINAH WASHINGTON: (Singing) If they asked me, I could write a book.

WATSON: Singer Dinah Washington decided she needed a more mainstream, wider audience. She demanded Jones arrange her music. He made lush prestige albums for her and singers like Nina Simone and Sarah Vaughan. Mercury Records promoted Quincy Jones as an executive, a major first for a Black man at a major record label. In 2001 on WHYY's Fresh Air, Jones said the label's president told him straight up, we need help with the bottom line.

JONES: I was a little presumptuous and said, well, I don't think it's such a big deal to make a pop hit. He says, well, why don't you start making something then?

LESLEY GORE: (Singing) It's my party, and I'll cry...

WATSON: In 1963, Jones struck gold with an unknown 16-year-old singer, Lesley Gore.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "IT'S MY PARTY")

GORE: (Singing) You would cry too if it happened to you.

WATSON: "It's My Party" was a smash hit like many of the other 18 singles Jones produced with Gore during the early to mid-1960s. That's when Frank Sinatra nicknamed him Q.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FLY ME TO THE MOON (IN OTHER WORDS)")

FRANK SINATRA: (Singing) Fly me to the moon. Let me swing up there with those stars.

WATSON: Together, they recorded an album that revived Sinatra's songbook.

("FLY ME TO THE MOON (IN OTHER WORDS)")

WATSON: Quincy Jones seemed to have musical superpowers. In 1967, he got two Oscar nominations for his soundtracks, becoming the first Black composer ever nominated...

("IN COLD BLOOD")

WATSON: ...For "In Cold Blood" and...

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "")

RAY CHARLES: (Singing) In the heat of the night...

WATSON: And he wrote many memorable TV themes, too, like for the police drama "Ironside"...

("IRONSIDE THEME")

WATSON: ...And the sitcom "Sanford And Son."

("(THE STREETBEATER)")

DAN FREEMAN: He was just incredibly revolutionary.

WATSON: Dan Freeman is a bassist, sound designer and college professor.

FREEMAN: Quincy Jones actually was really kind of blowing beyond, I guess, the frontiers of pop music and really kind of on the edge of things both, I think, musically and technologically during those years after 1975.

WATSON: A decade later at the peak of the music video era, Jones produced "We Are The World" with U.S.A. for Africa.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WE ARE THE WORLD")

USA FOR AFRICA: (Singing) We are the world. We are the children.

WATSON: The groundbreaking charity album assembled some 50 pop stars and raised millions of dollars to address famine in Ethiopia and elsewhere.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WE ARE THE WORLD")

USA FOR AFRICA: (Singing) There's a choice we're making...

WATSON: Quincy Jones was a tastemaker of new and established artists. He won more than two dozen Grammys, was the publisher of Vibe magazine, the executive producer of the hit sitcom "The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air" and father of seven children. He was beloved for his vibrant personality and sometimes unfiltered opinions. Dan Freeman remembers the advice Jones gave to his graduating class at Harvard University in 1997.

FREEMAN: He said something very simple, which was that every day you had to make a choice, and the choice was between love and fear. And he said, as much as you could, always choose love.

WATSON: Always choose love - words and music by Quincy Jones.

Walter Ray Watson, NPR News.

("KILLER JOE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.