
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 ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
23/06/2026
When we began planning our transition from an SDI-based infrastructure to a new ...
23/06/2026
Imagine Communications has announced the appointment of Greg Garmon as Senior Vice President, Americas Video Sales. Garmon will oversee account growth and busin...
23/06/2026
Snap has promoted Emma Wakely to Head of Sports and Media Partnerships, Americas, succeeding Anmol Malhotra, who has been elevated to Global Head of Content and...
23/06/2026
YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air MI New York's Major League Cr...
23/06/2026
The Universal Talent Identifier (HAND) has issued HAND IDs to 34 top projected prospects in the 2026 NBA Draft class, including AJ Dybantsa, Cameron Boozer, and...
23/06/2026
World Boxing has announced the launch of World Boxing TV, a subscription-based streaming platform built on the Joymo platform, offering live events, on-demand c...
23/06/2026
FloSports will stream 32 off-road motorcycle racing events on FloRacing, includi...
23/06/2026
SES has announced the expansion of its ASTRA TV platform in Spain with the addition of 14 regional channels in HD and UHD quality and the launch of new hybrid s...
23/06/2026
Appear ASA has announced its role in Rede Legislativa de R dio e TV's contri...
23/06/2026
LTN has announced that PBS has selected it as its IP video partner to modernize content distribution and contribution across more than 330 public television sta...
23/06/2026
Ease Live has announced that its graphics overlay platform is powering an interactive fan experience on Rally.TV, the official streaming platform of the FIA Wor...
23/06/2026
Chyron has announced updates to Chyron LIVE, its cloud-native live production pl...
23/06/2026
ESPN has announced ESPN Fan House, a fan engagement hub powered by Flowcode, launching in August ahead of the 2026 college football season. Publicis Sports will...
23/06/2026
The city's solid position in broadcast, entertainment, and sports attracted the major microphone manufacturer
Sennheiser Group is moving its Americas Regio...
23/06/2026
128 channels of signal routing & DSP
Announced just before the NAMM Show 2026, Violet Audio's latest digital audio matrix offers 128 channels of signal ...
23/06/2026
Latest Current expansion created by EPROM
Minimal Audio have just launched the latest Current Expansion, Memory Rites. Designed in collaboration with renown...
23/06/2026
Popular hardware EQ gets official plug-in emulation
Undertone Audio have just launched a new plug-in that brings one of their most popular hardware designs ...
23/06/2026
December 7, 2022
Colorfront (colorfront.com) - the multi-award-winning develope...
23/06/2026
April 23, 2026
NAB 2026, Las Vegas - the Academy and Emmy Award-winning develop...
23/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/06/2026
PlayBox Neo appoints Besco as Channel Reseller to establish a firm foothold in Asia Pacific's thriving high-tech export-driven economic boom
PlayBox Neo, t...
23/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/06/2026
LTN, a global leader in IP-based video transport and network services, today announced that PBS has selected LTN as its IP video partner to modernize and future...
23/06/2026
LiveU will introduce its Q Era to Australia and New Zealand for the first time at ABE2026 on Stand No. 25, (July 30 31). Leading the showcase is the LU900Q, a n...
23/06/2026
Miri Technologies Inc. has begun shipping its highly anticipated V410 live 4K video encoder/decoder for streaming, IP-based production workflows and AV-over-IP ...
23/06/2026
DHD audio reports the completion of an upgrade to the audio production facilities at the Galilee headquarters of Radio Tzafon. The station broadcasts two progra...
23/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/06/2026
Multifaceted Growth Executive Brings 20+ Years of Experience Leading Organizations Across Tech and M&E
Imagine Communications today announced the appointment ...
23/06/2026
Australians in Film and Screen Australia's talent development initiative UNT...
23/06/2026
Visual Productions Unveils RdmRelay2 Four-channel Relay Control at InfoComm 2026
Brie Clayton June 22, 2026
0 Comments
New Relay Solution Combines DMX, ...
23/06/2026
SMPTE Makes Its Standards Freely Accessible, Opening Standards Library to the Gl...
23/06/2026
23rd June 2026, London: UKTV and BBC Entertainment have unveiled a joint co-comm...
23/06/2026
Also starring Jonny Lee Miller, Sheldon Shepherd and Bel Powley, the ambitious f...
23/06/2026
The priority now is a clear and credible plan
June 23, 2026, Winchester, UK - Arqiva, the UK's leading communications infrastructure provider, welcomes tod...
23/06/2026
The RT Toy Show Appeal has raised over 31 million since its inception in 2020 ...
23/06/2026
News Highlights:
NVIDIA technology runs 81% of the TOP500 and 90% of the systems new to the list.
26 systems on the TOP500 adopted the NVIDIA Grace CPU, up ei...
23/06/2026
Companies are asking how to build specialized AI that fits with the way their workflows actually run.
The first wave of enterprise AI was about access. Compan...
23/06/2026
Newly identified molecule strengthens the eye's response to damage in retinal disease Scripps Research discovery finds that restoring the naturally occurrin...
22/06/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
22/06/2026
Cosm has announced the appointment of David Ho as Chief Legal Officer, a newly created executive role reporting to President and CEO Jeb Terry. Ho will oversee ...
22/06/2026
Warner Bros. Discovery and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have announced the developm...
22/06/2026
Daktronics has completed an audio control system upgrade at Petco Park in San Di...