Remembering the Rare and Extraordinary Life of Quincy Jones With the passing of the legendary musician, composer, arranger, producer, and all-around media mogul, Berklee remembers one of its earliest and most prominent alums with a tribute and a retrospective playlist.
By
Bryan Parys
November 4, 2024
Quincy Jones at the 1983 Berklee commencement ceremony, where he was awarded an honorary doctorate.
Image courtesy of the Berklee Archives
What do Michael Jackson, Oprah Winfrey, and Jacob Collier have in common? They all have Quincy Jones '51 '83H to thank for playing a part in their rise to fame. They are three of countless others. In many ways, his life could be arranged as a film montage, revealing his presence at a host of major moments in American history.
Picture it:
There he is at age 14 introducing himself to his 16-year-old schoolmate Ray Charles at the Black Elks Club in Seattle.
Moving across the country on a scholarship to attend Schillinger House (which would later become Berklee College of Music).
Joining Lionel Hamptons band at age 20, where Monk Montgomery was given-by Leo Fender himself-one of the first electric basses.
Playing second trumpet on Heartbreak Hotel for Elvis Presley's first six television performances in 1956.
A year later moving to Paris to study with composer Nadia Boulanger, who would go on to teach the preeminent minimalist composer Philip Glass.
And this is all before he turns 30, let alone all that was to become an unmatched career of influence in music, film, television, philanthropy, and beyond, that garnered innumerable accolades, inculding 28 Grammys-the third most amount of wins ever.
An undated photo of Jones during his time as a Berklee student.
Image courtesy of the Berklee Archives
If Jones had stuck to just one creative path out of the countless trails he blazed throughout his 91 years, he would still be a legend. But his curiosity and ambitions were endless and unbound by genre. In what nowadays we'd call a growth mindset, Jones saw his career as one of constant evolution, not a series of sector pivots. As he described it to Mark Small, founder and former editor of Berklee Today, in the spring 1995 issue of the magazine, It was an expansion. I didnt shift gears; I just went into another territory.
Terri Lyne Carrington, founder and artistic director of the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice was the house drummer for Joness late-night TV show Vibe, and says that his ability to weave between genres and his pure passion about good music, no matter the style, as well the ability to remain relevant through many musical trends, will always make him a role model for me and shoulders to stand on.
As an advocate for Black culture, he was a force. He was the first African American to gain an upper-level executive position at a music label (as vice president of Mercury Records) as well as to score a major motion picture (for Sidney Lumet's 1964 film The Pawnbroker). He helmed production credits for a large portion Michael Jackson's imperial era, including Thriller, which remains the best-selling album of all time. Jones had prominent roles in the making of the TV series Roots (1977), the musical The Wiz (1978), and the film The Color Purple (1985), all of which have become landmarks for centering Black history and experiences in American visual media.
I wouldnt trade the time that I got on earth for anything-it was just right.
- Quincy Jones 51 83H, from a 1995 interview in Berklee Today
From big band to bebop, R&B to hip-hop, classical to pop, Jones was an early adopter and innovator, where many at the time saw these genres as independent of each other. Everybody keeps getting hung up with categories, he told Small in 1995. Black music feels like a music that is a voice of the whole people, so it will jump around to different sources at various times-from rhythm and blues to delta blues, or jazz. . . . It is always going to be very vital to what is going on.
Jones's ties with Berklee only strengthened in the decades after he attended as a student. He was awarded an honorary doctorate in 1983 and made countless visits to campus over the years. Former Berklee President Roger H. Brown, who got know Jones over the years, says that Quincy loved to talk about the larger world. If you wanna know, you gotta go, he would say, meaning, you have to travel, understand other cultures and transcend the artificial boundaries that keep us divided. His life was like his music and reflected his voracious appetite for experience, innovation and connection. He was a global ambassador for the Board of Trustees, and through one of his organizations, the Quincy Jones Musiq Consortium, he partnered with Berklee City Music, where he also served as the national honorary ambassador.
I wouldnt trade the time that I got on earth for anything-it was just right, he told Berklee Today. Ive felt and experienced a lot of different attitudes and eras. I thank God for it.
Take a listen to just a small sample of the wide-ranging music that Jones created, produced, arranged, or composed over the course of his legendary career in the following playlist:
More Reflections on Quincy Jones from the Berklee Community
Boston Globe: Krystal Banfield, vice president for education outreach, remembers Quincy Jones as a champion for expanding music education to underserved communities through his role with Berklee City Music.
NBC Boston: Faculty Joe Bennett and Giorgi Mikadze remember Jones for embodying Berklee's values of authenticity and creating a blueprint for producers.
Related Categories
News
Playlists
Most Popular
Jim Lucchese
Image by Kelly Davidson
Jim Lucchese Named Berklee's Fifth President A 20-year music industry veteran and a committed artist advocate with deep Berklee roots, Lucche
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
09/10/2026
September 10 2026, 06:00 (PDT) Dolby Expands Dolby OptiView Platform with New Capabilities at IBC 2026
New Sports Intelligence helps providers better unders...
08/10/2026
Modern venues have come a long way since the tinny, echoing audio of the mid 20t...
08/10/2026
ESPN's first Super Bowl production will stream in English and Spanish on Disney+, while the ESPN App carries the full slate of game, ManningCast, studio, an...
08/10/2026
From high-school videoboards to War Eagle Productions, the Opelika native is learning how to lead shows and capture big moments
The future of live sports produ...
08/10/2026
The Television Academy and Prime Video have announced a six-year agreement making Prime Video the exclusive global home of the Emmy Awards beginning with the 20...
08/10/2026
Techex will exhibit at NAB Show New York 2026 (Booth 623, Javits Center, October...
08/10/2026
X Games has announced the appointment of Steve Rogers as Chief Operating Officer. Rogers previously served as COO of World Supercross and spent nearly a decade ...
08/10/2026
Fonn Group has appointed Trevor Spielmann as Sales Director for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Spielmann joins from EVS, where he held sales and business de...
08/10/2026
The flagship program will originate from major PG events with a four-camera production, live distribution across PGTV, social platforms
Perfect Game is bringin...
08/10/2026
Innovation rarely happens in a vacuum. More often, it happens at the point of collision: when worlds that have run on separate tracks begin to converge. That is...
08/10/2026
For decades, the production and broadcast services business has run on a familia...
08/10/2026
Uplynk, Zixi, BroadView Software, and Grass Valley have published The IP Converg...
08/10/2026
The NFL has announced the return of the Big Data Bowl, the league's analytics competition, now in its ninth year and again powered by AWS. Registration is o...
08/10/2026
Eutelsat has renewed its partnership with T l diffusion d'Alg rie (TDA), Algeria's national broadcasting network operator, for continued distribution of...
08/10/2026
Disney will livestream Super Bowl LXI on February 14, 2027, alongside the game's broadcast on ESPN and ABC. All Disney subscribers in the United States wi...
08/10/2026
RHStv and Red House Streaming have announced an expansion of their partnership w...
08/10/2026
Gray Media has announced a distribution agreement with TEGNA and DAZN to simulca...
08/10/2026
SVG readers can save 10% on registration and receive a complimentary Solutions H...
08/10/2026
PROTON Camera Innovations GmbH has been named a recipient of a 2026 Technology a...
08/10/2026
Industry leaders discuss real-world cloud workflows for live game production, pl...
08/10/2026
The next-gen audio technology joins Dolby Vision as part of Apple TV's immersive F1 experience...
08/10/2026
David France, Jesse Short Bull, Mato Wayuhi, N. Bird Runningwater, Jodi Archambau, Jhane Myers, Paul McGuire, Amber Morning Star Byars, Holly Macarro, Nick Tils...
08/10/2026
Dynamic panning plug-ins get an upgrade
Sound Particles have just announced major updates for two of their popular dynamic panning plug-ins. Energy Panner 2...
08/10/2026
New expandable instrument boasts full DMNO engine
UDO Audio have just announced the upcoming release of a new, expandable synth that packs the power of the ...
08/10/2026
Two new subwoofers added to monitoring line-up
ADAM Audio's monitoring range has just been expanded with two new DSP-equipped subwoofers, the Sub8 PRO a...
08/10/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
08/10/2026
Calrec gives broadcasters freedom of choice at NAB Show New York We're looking forward to meeting up with you all at NAB New York on 21st-22nd October.
Cal...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Globecast, a leading provider of broadcast, media and entertainment managed services, will showcase its next generation of media orchestration services at NAB S...
08/10/2026
Clear-Com played a critical role in the production communications infrastructure for Rock in Rio 2026, one of the world's largest and most recognized music...
08/10/2026
Sohonet Launches ClearView Rush: A Leap Forward in Studio Review, Built for Crea...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Ikegami announces a major expansion to its range of broadcast-quality live production cameras. Scheduled for introduction on Ikegami booth 708 at NAB New York, ...
08/10/2026
Calrec will be located at Booth 444.
Freedom to choose
The media landscape is evolving quickly, and the broadcasters best placed for what comes next will be...
08/10/2026
LiveU has announced that CRD Audiovisuel relied on LiveUs LU900Q intelligent production unit, with built-in native LiveU IQ (LIQ ) connectivity, to deliver live...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Marshall Electronics, a globally recognized provider of high-performance video solutions for broadcast, streaming, AV and professional production, will exhibit ...
08/10/2026
Latest Innovations Extend Fiber to Any Location and Elevate Subscriber Quality o...
Remembering the Rare and Extraordinary Life of Quincy Jones With the passing of the legendary musician, composer, arranger, producer, and all-around media mogul, Berklee remembers one of its earliest and most prominent alums with a tribute and a retrospective playlist.
