Quincy Jones – a life in pictures

The composer, arranger and producer who worked with stars from Frank Sinatra to Michael Jackson has died aged 91. We look back at his career highs

Quincy Jones conducting in 1960. Born in 1933, in south Chicago, he won music scholarships and first rose to prominence as a trumpet player in Lionel Hampton’s jazz band

Photograph: Ernst Henriksson/Rex/Shutterstock

With Lesley Gore. Her song It’s My Party was the first hit single for Jones as producer. It went to No 1 in the US charts and Jones became the first African American vice-president of Mercury Records

Photograph: Keystone Press/Alamy

Working with Frank Sinatra on a soundstage, 1964

Photograph: John Dominis/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Image

In the 1960s and 1970s, Jones was in great demand as a writer of film scores including In the Heat of the Night, They Call Me Mister Tibbs!, The Italian Job, In Cold Blood and The Getaway

Photograph: Granamour Weems Collection/Alamy

Jones pictured in 1970

Photograph: Jim McCrary/Redferns

Conducting in 1973

Photograph: Allstar

At his home studio in 1974 writing music and listening to a recording on his headphones. That year, he survived a life-threatening brain aneurysm that required two operations, leaving six steel pins in his head

Photograph: George Brich/AP

Dionne Warwick and Jones at the Grammy awards, 1979

Photograph: Michael Putland/Getty Images

Jones and his second wife, actor Peggy Lipton, hold Jones’s star, which was placed in the Hollywood Walk of Fame, 1980

Photograph: Barfield/AP

Michael Jackson holds eight awards as he poses with Jones at the 1984 Grammys. Jones produced, with Jackson, the albums Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982), and Bad (1987)

Photograph: Doug Pizac/AP

Jones at the Dreamworks studio in Universal City, California, in 1986. He was one of the producers on The Color Purple and also wrote the music for the film

Photograph: David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images

Warwick, Stevie Wonder, Jones, Jackson and Lionel Ritchie pose with the Grammy they received for their performances on the all-star recording USA for Africa: We Are the World, 1985. Jones produced and conducted the celebrities and wrote a sign ‘Check your egos at the door’ on the front door of A&M Studios in Los Angeles

Photograph: Bettmann Archive

With Miles Davis at the Montreux Jazz festival, 1991. Jones persuaded him to perform in what would be one of his last concerts

Photograph: Keystone Press/Alamy

Quincy with a trophy case containing some of his 28 Grammys. He had 80 Grammy award nominations plus a Grammy legend award

Photograph: Dave Allocca/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Jones and Oprah Winfrey backstage during the 67th Oscars, 1995, where he received the Jean Hersholt humanitarian award

Photograph: Bob Riha Jr/Getty Images

Jones with his daughter and his partner Nastassja Kinski at the We Are the Future concert, Rome, 2004, organised by the Quincy Jones Listen Up Foundation to raise money for children in war-scarred cities

Photograph: Luigi Narici/Rex/Shutterstock

Jones hugs singer Angélique Kidjo at the end of the Quincy Jones’ 75th birthday celebration at the Montreux jazz festival, 2008

Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images

President Barack Obama awards the 2010 National Medal of Arts to Jones during a ceremony at the White House in 2011

Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

Jones speaks during his induction at the 2013 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Los Angeles

Photograph: Mario Anzuoni/Reuters

With daughter Rashida Jones on stage at Q85: A Musical Celebration for Quincy Jones in 2018 in Los Angeles. Jones was married three times and had seven children

Photograph: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

With Naomi Campbell at the American Icon awards gala, Los Angeles, 2019

Photograph: Startraks Photo/Rex/Shutterstock