Quincy Jones understood how to bring out the best in an astonishingly array of performers.
Jones, who died Sunday at age 91 at his home in Bel Air, Calif., ranged from lush musical arrangements to multilayered walls of sound depending upon the talents of the singers whose hits he arranged and produced.
He let Frank Sinatra’s voice and Count Basie’s band engage in swinging discourse. Basie’s piano and the orchestra’s performance back Sinatra with pleasant restraint before lifting off.
Although Jones admired the young Lesley Gore’s vocal range and ability to sing on key, he surrounded her “It’s My Party” with waves of music that she soars above.
Eddie Van Halen’s snarling guitar solo on Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” challenges and illuminates Jackson’s incendiary chorus.
After a career as a jazz trumpeter and big band leader, Jones dominated pop music as a composer and arranger.
His reach extended to Hollywood, where he wrote and arranged the scores for a number of TV shows and movies.
Only a widely respected man of Jones’ diplomacy and discernment could have brought virtually every musical superstar together to record the “We Are the World” video.
Quincy Jones’ music spanned the world.
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