Legendary music producer Quincy Jones died Sunday at 91, leaving behind an immense legacy in musical genres ranging from jazz and funk to R&B and pop.
A producer, composer, arranger, songwriter, bandleader, recording artist and film scorer, Jones produced massive hits like Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and arranged the Frank Sinatra classic “Fly Me to the Moon,” among many other things.
Annenberg media spoke with USC Thornton Professor Jason Goldman about how Jones influenced him personally.
“Quincy legacy, to me is, I mean, he’s the epitome of a musician,” Goldman said. “He’s one who actually, I based my career off of. I mean, he is a jazz musician at heart. He worked with some of the greatest musicians on the planet, including two of the greatest, maybe ever, Frank Sinatra and Michael Jackson.”
Jones inspired countless artists, including much-younger artists like Kendrick Lamar, who credited Jones as the “inspiration for combining hip-hop and jazz” in the 2018 documentary, “Quincy.”
Jones also holds the record for the most Grammy Award nominations, with 80 nominations, of which he won 28. He was also awarded the 2010 National Medal of Arts by President Obama, the highest honor an artist can receive in the United States.
“Most 99.9% of people in the world will never get to where he’s gotten,” Goldman said. “I think his legacy is his ability to do so much in music, especially being a jazz musician.”
The Thornton school has been honoring Quincy Jones this year with a series of events called Quincy Jones: Beyond Category, most recently a panel that featured some of his musical collaborators. A symphonic concert featuring classic Jones film and television scores is planned for the spring.
Dean Jason King of USC’s Thornton School of Music helped organize the events honoring Jones.
“We were happy to be able to celebrate him in life but also happy to celebrate him in his passing,” King said. We hope that everybody comes out to see the remaining events in the series because its really a testament to the kind of life that he led which was so unprecedented and so trailblazing.”