Quincy Jones

Quincy Delight Jones Jr born March 14 1933 is an American record producer musician songwriter composer arranger and film and television producer His career spans 70 years in the entertainment industry with a record of 80 Grammy Award nominations 28 Grammys and a Grammy Legend Award in 1992 Jones came to prominence in the 1950s as a jazz arranger and conductor before working on pop music and film scores He moved easily between musical genres producing Lesley Gores major pop hits of the early 1960s including Its My Party and serving as an arranger and conductor for several collaborations between the jazz artists Frank Sinatra and Count Basie in the same time period In 1968 Jones became the first African American to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song for The Eyes of Love from the film Banning Jones was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score for his work on the 1967 film In Cold Blood making him the first African American to be nominated twice in the same year Jones produced three of popstar Michael Jacksons most successful albums Off the Wall 1979 Thriller 1982 and Bad 1987 In 1985 Jones produced and conducted the charity song We Are the World which raised funds for victims of famine in Ethiopia In 1971 Jones became the first African American to be the musical director and conductor of the Academy Awards In 1995 he was the first African American to receive the academys Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award He is tied with sound designer Willie D Burton as the second most Oscarnominated African American with seven nominations each In 2013 Jones was inducted into the Rock Roll Hall of Fame as the winner alongside Lou Adler of the Ahmet Ertegun Award He was named one of the most influential jazz musicians of the 20th century by Time