Music titan Quincy Jones, legendary composer, producer, and music icon, has passed away at the age of 91. The cause of death is unknown at this time.

Jones’ death was confirmed by his publicist, Arnold Robinson. The larger-than-life musical figure had reportedly passed away peacefully as he was surrounded by his family in his Bel-Air-based home on November 3.

“Tonight, with full but broken hearts, we must share the news of our father and brother Quincy Jones’ passing,” the Jones family shared. “And although this is an incredible loss for our family, we celebrate the great life that he lived and know there will never be another like him.”

Quincy Delight Jones Jr. was born in Chicago on March 14, 1933. He wanted to become a gangster like the ones he witnessed in his harsh neighborhood as a child. 

His mother was sent to a psychiatric hospital when he was seven years old. Jones’ father, a carpenter, remarried and relocated the family to Bremerton, Washington, where he engaged in small crime as a young man. 

Jones claimed that after breaking into the community hall of the segregated wartime housing complex where he and a few pals stayed and discovering a piano, his passion for music took off in Bremerton.

“Music was the one thing I could control,” he shared in his autobiography.

“It was the one world that offered me freedom … I didn’t have to search for answers. The answers lay no further than the bell of my trumpet and my scrawled, penciled scores. Music made me full, strong, popular, self-reliant and cool,”  he continued.

By the age of 13, he performed jazz, popular music, and rhythm-and-blues in nightclubs after experimenting with a variety of instruments in the school band before deciding on the trumpet. 

When Jones was 14, he met 16-year-old then-non-celebrity Ray Charles in Seattle, who taught him how to compose and arrange music. 

Jones’s unmatched influence on the music industry spanned almost seven decades as he shaped the sounds of American music through the genres of jazz, pop, and R&B.

He famously collaborated with musical megastars such as Count Basie, Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, and Michael Jackson, producing landmark albums like Off the Wall, Thriller, and Bad, which helped redefine pop music and catapulted Jackson to international superstardom. 

Beyond his work with Jackson, Jones’s career as a producer, composer, and arranger included iconic albums such as The Dude and his contributions to the soundtrack of The Wiz, a film adaptation of the Broadway musical that starred Diana Ross and introduced him to Jackson. 

Beyond music, Jones ventured into film, television, and even publishing. In the 1980s, he founded Vibe magazine, giving voice to hip-hop and R&B culture, and produced The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, a show that would become a cultural touchstone. 

His charitable efforts were also notable; in 1985, he helped organize the recording of “We Are the World,” a charity single raising funds for famine relief in Africa, featuring some of the biggest names in music. 

Jones’s passing struck the hearts of millions of fans worldwide. 

Many of Jones’ collaborators, friends, and fans such as President Joe Biden, Will Smith, Elton John, Dr. Dre, Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, and many more have paid tribute to the fallen icon.

“Quincy Jones was a musical genius who transformed the soul of America – one beat, one rhythm, and one rhyme at a time. … He was a great unifier, who believed deeply in the healing power of music to restore hope and uplift those suffering from hunger, poverty, and violence, in America and the continent of Africa,” President Biden stated. 

Jones was survived by his seven children.