Quincy Jones Facts & Worksheets

Quincy Jones is an American record producer, musician and songwriter, composer and arranger, and film and television producer. Throughout the course of his 70-year career, he has received numerous Grammy nominations, wins, and awards, including the 1992 Grammy Legend Award.

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Key Facts & Information

EARLY LIFE AND CAREER

• On March 14, 1933, Quincy Delight Jones was born on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois. He is the oldest of Sarah Frances Jones and Quincy Delight Jones.
• The Jones family made the Great Migration and settled in Chicago. Jones’ younger brother, Lloyd, worked as an engineer for KOMO – TV until 1998. 
• Quincy Jones’ mother, who frequently sang religious songs, and his next-door neighbor Lucy Jackson, introduced him to music.
• After the Second World War, the family relocated to Seattle, where Jones attended Garfield High School. He honed his trumpeting and arranging talents in high school and played with saxophonist Charles Taylor, whose mother, Evelyn Bundy, was one of Seattle’s first society jazz bandleaders. 
• Jones studied briefly at the prestigious Schillinger House in Boston in the early 1950s before touring as a trumpeter and arranger with Lionel Hampton. He quickly rose to prominence as a freelance arranger, working with artists such as Clifford Brown, Gigi Gryce, Oscar Pettiford, Cannonball Adderley, Count Basie, and many more. 
• In 1956, he toured with Dizzy Gillespie’s big band, recorded his first album as a leader the same year, worked as an arranger and producer for the Barclay label in Paris in the late 1950s, and continued to compose. 
• Some of his more popular compositions from this time period include “Stockholm Sweetnin’,” “For Lena and Lennie,” and “Jessica’s Day.”

PROFESSIONAL CAREER

• Quincy Jones joined Mercury Records in 1961 as an artists-and-repertoire director. When he was promoted to vice president at Mercury Records three years later, he became one of the first African Americans to hold a top position at a major American record label. 
• He also composed music for a number of films during the 1960s, including The Pawnbroker, In the Heat of the Night, and Enter Laughing. 
• Jones worked for the A&M label from 1969 to 1981, shifting away from jazz and toward pop music. During this time, he became one of the world’s most well-known producers, and his success enabled him to launch his own record label, Qwest, in 1980.

COLLABORATION WITH MUSIC ICONS

• Quincy Jones and Frank Sinatra first collaborated in 1958 to organize a benefit concert at the Monaco Sporting Club. Six years later, Sinatra hired him to arrange and conduct his second album, It Might as Well Be Swing. 
• Jones also conducted and arranged Sinatra and Basie’s performances when they appeared on The Hollywood Palace T.V. show (1965) and then worked on Sinatra’s live album, Sinatra at the Sands, in 1966. Sinatra and Jones collaborated again nineteen years later for 1984’s L.A. Is My Lady’s name.
• Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones first worked together on the, Off the Wall album, which sold approximately 20 million copies. Jones became the most powerful record producer in the industry at the time as a result of this.
• Thriller, Jones, and Jackson’s next collaboration sold 65 million copies and went on to become the best-selling album of all time. Jones worked on Jackson’s album Bad, which sold 45 million copies and marked their final collaboration.
• Quincy Jones also produced the film The Color Purple (1985) and the television series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, as well as organizing the all-star charity recording “We Are the World” (1985). He founded the magazine Vibe in 1993, which he sold in 2006.
• Jones collaborated with David Salzman to produce An American Reunion, a concert commemorating Bill Clinton’s inauguration as President of the United States, in 1993. The following year, he and Salzman renamed their company Quincy Jones / David Salzman Entertainment.

ACTIVISM

• His social activism began in the 1960s with Martin Luther King Jr. 
• Quincy Jones is one of the founders of the Institute for Black American Music, aiming to raise funds for the establishment of a national library of African-American art and music. 
• Additionally, he was a founding member of the Chicago Black Arts Festival and the Quincy Jones Workshops in the 1970s.
• He established the Quincy Jones Listen Up Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to connecting youths with technology, education, culture, and music.

AWARDS, HONORS, AND LEGACY

• Quincy received an Emmy Award for the theme music he wrote for the television miniseries Roots in 1977, and he was nominated for more than 75 Grammy Awards, winning 28 of them. 
• He also won seven Academy Awards. In 2001, he was honored at the Kennedy Center, and in 2010, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. 
• Listen Up: The Lives of Quincy Jones, a critically acclaimed Warner Bros. film, chronicled his life and career in 1990. 
• He later published Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones in 2001. Then, The Complete Quincy Jones: My Journey & Passions, a lavishly illustrated book of reflections on his life and career, was released seven years later. 
• In 2010, he released Soul Bossa Nostra, his first new album in 15 years, featuring an all-star cast of contemporary pop, R&B, and hip-hop artists in what Quincy Jones calls a “family celebration,”
• Jones was elected to membership in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013.
• In 2017, Quincy Jones agreed to give his name to a new exchange-traded investment fund (ETF), the Quincy Jones Streaming Music, Media & Entertainment ETF. 

“It’s like a melody. You can study orchestration, you can study harmony and theory and everything else, but melodies come straight from God.”  ~ Quincy Jones

• The fund, which is sub-advised by Vident Investment, is among the first to license the name of a well-known figure from the arts and entertainment world in order to attract investors in the booming ETF market.
• In 2018, Netflix featured Quincy Jones in a feature-length documentary — Quincy. The film was written and directed by his daughter, Rashida Jones, who carries on Jones’ legacy of artistry and social activism. The film was awarded the Best Music Film of the Year the following year’s Grammy Award.

“I tell my kids and I tell proteges, always have humility when you create and grace when you succeed because it’s not about you. You are a terminal for a higher power. As soon as you accept that, you can do it forever.”  ~ Quincy Jones

PERSONAL LIFE

• Jones has had three marriages and seven children with five different women. From 1957 to 1966, he was married to Jeri Caldwell, with whom he had a daughter named Jolie. He had a brief relationship with Carol Reynolds, with whom he had a daughter named Rachel.
• From 1967 to 1974, he was married to Swedish actress Ulla Andersson, with whom he had a daughter named Martina and a son named Quincy, who also became a music producer. Jones married American actress Peggy Lipton the day after his divorce from Andersson. 
• They have two daughters, Kidada and Rashida, who are both actors. Jones and Lipton split up in 1989. From 1991 to 1995, he dated and lived with German actress Nastassja Kinski, with whom he had a daughter named Kenya, who went on to become a fashion model.

Quincy Jones Worksheets

This fantastic bundle includes everything you need to know about Quincy Jones across 22 in-depth pages. These ready-to-use worksheets are perfect for teaching kids about Quincy Jones. Quincy Jones is an American record producer, musician and songwriter, composer and arranger, and film and television producer.

Complete List of Included Worksheets

Below is a list of all the worksheets included in this document.

1. Quincy Jones Facts
2. A Career Man
3. Working With People
4. Feeling the Songs
5. Imaging the Music
6. Song Lyrics Analysis
7. Song Composition
8. Album Review
9. Modern Cover
10. Music Therapy
11. Album Design

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Quincy Jones?

Quincy Jones is an American music producer, composer, and arranger. He has worked with some of the biggest names in music, including Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra, and Ray Charles.

What are some of Quincy Jones’ most famous works?

Quincy Jones is responsible for many famous works, including producing Michael Jackson’s albums “Thriller” and “Bad,” as well as composing the theme music for the TV show “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”

How has Quincy Jones impacted the music industry?

Quincy Jones has had a huge impact on the music industry, both as a producer and as a composer. He has won many awards for his work, including 28 Grammy Awards, and he has been a pioneer in combining different genres of music, such as jazz, pop, and R&B.

What is Quincy Jones’ background?

Quincy Jones was born on March 14, 1933, in Chicago, Illinois. He grew up in Seattle, Washington, and began playing the trumpet at a young age. He attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, before moving to New York City to pursue a career in music.

What is Quincy Jones doing now?

Quincy Jones is still active in the music industry, although he has slowed down a bit in recent years. He continues to produce music and work on various projects, and he is involved in philanthropic efforts, including his work with the Quincy Jones Foundation, which supports music education programs for young people.

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