On November 3, legendary music producer Quincy Jones handed away at 91 years outdated.
Jones’ influence on the music, movie, and artwork world can’t be overstated.
Throughout seven a long time, Jones produced a few of the world’s hottest information and composed over 35 movie scores. He labored with numerous icons within the trade together with Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Lesley Gore, and Michael Jackson.
He broke information all through his life, not simply as a best-selling music producer however as an activist. In 1995, he turned the primary African American to obtain the Academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
Jones’ profession as an activist and humanitarian extends again to the Civil Rights period, and he typically cited Martin Luther King Jr. as an inspiration.
“I had the large honor of assembly Martin Luther King Jr. at Jackie Robinson’s home in 1955, and from then on, my life was by no means the identical,” Jones wrote on his Fb web page in 2019.
“Civil rights work and political involvement was now not an exercise to do on the facet,” he continued. “It turned a necessary a part of life and humanity.”
On the top of the George Floyd protests and the Black Lives Matter motion, Jones maintained his place as an activist in opposition to racism and oppression, saying that hatred couldn’t go ignored.
“Individuals have been turning their heads the opposite manner, however it’s all the identical to me — misogyny, racism,” Jones advised the Hollywood Reporter in 2021. “You must be taught hate anyone. It doesn’t come naturally, I don’t suppose.”
Jones’ robust sense of justice and equality led him to pursue various charitable efforts.
In 1985, Jones produced and carried out the charity single “We Are the World,” a celebrity-stuffed spectacle that raised over $80 million for famine reduction and humanitarian causes all through Africa — and continues elevating cash right this moment.
In 2010, on the twenty fifth anniversary of the music’s launch, Jones re-recorded “We Are the World” with a brand new ensemble to boost funds for earthquake reduction in Haiti.
A yr later in 2011, Jones then labored with the Jazz Basis of America to financially assist aged jazz musicians who had been injured and displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
All through his life, Jones championed various nonprofits and foundations that have been near his coronary heart: We Are The Future, NAACP, GLAAD, and Healthcorps.
Jones was additionally a vocal proponent of inclusion and advocacy for all kids, no matter race, incapacity, background, or earnings.
Within the Nineteen Seventies, Jones shaped the Quincy Jones Workshops to supply free music schooling and songwriting classes to inner-city youth.
In 2001, he created the Hear Up Basis to attach children in underserved communities to music and STEM applications and constructed greater than 100 properties in distant areas of South Africa.
As his nonprofit grew, he was notably fascinated by the way in which that music remedy may gain advantage kids who have been neurodivergent.
“Music all the time engages the left and proper sides of the mind,” Jones advised Means Journal in 2011. “You’ve obtained emotion and mind at work always, and that makes it straightforward to be taught all the pieces else. I’m a robust advocate of getting music related to your life. It’ll flip you upside-down. I see folks with dyslexia and a spotlight deficit dysfunction (ADD) benefiting from it.”
One in all Jones’ most constant philanthropic ties was his work in Down syndrome advocacy.
After his pal’s granddaughter was born with Down syndrome, he served as a spokesperson for the International Down Syndrome Basis and the Linda Crnic Institute for Down Syndrome — the latter of which was the primary institute of its type to supply analysis and take care of folks with Down syndrome.
In 2008, the institute established the Quincy Jones Distinctive Advocacy Award as a nod to Jones’ humanitarian efforts.
“I imagine from the underside of my coronary heart that each little one on this planet has one thing to supply mankind,” Jones mentioned when receiving his award. “And so they can soar to the best mountain tops if they’re given the chance to take action.”
Since his passing, associates, household, and colleagues reached out to pay tribute to the star, chatting with his generosity and spirit.
“Quincy Jones was a lot greater than only a musical genius,” actress and activist Lee Grant wrote on X, previously generally known as Twitter. “He was a raconteur, movie artist, and an excellent man. We have been very fortunate to have had him.”
“An icon, a legend, however most of all a fantastic spirit. It’s too many tales to share however I’ll cherish them ceaselessly,” Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds wrote on Instagram. “Relaxation straightforward my pal.”
“He gave a lot to the world,” Barbra Streisand wrote on Instagram, beneath an image of her and Jones embracing. “I’ll miss you a lot my pricey pal.”
Header picture by way of Los Angeles Occasions (CC BY 4.0)
