Quincy Jones and Frank Sinatra

Quincy Jones and Frank Sinatra: the audacious partnership that rocketed them to another planet

Jones was behind many inflection points in American music, but it all began with a brotherhood with Ol’ Blue Eyes

Andrew Lawrence

Tuesday 5 November 2024

In 1958 Quincy Jones was working in Paris when he received a call on behalf of the princess of Monaco. Grace Kelly had convinced the principality to host a fundraising concert for the United Nations Refugee Fund and booked Frank Sinatra to perform – but she needed Jones’s help finding Sinatra a backing orchestra.

 

Quincy Jones, producer and entertainment powerhouse, dies aged 91

Widely and wildly talented musician and industry mogul worked with Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra, Will Smith and others

Ben Beaumont-Thomas

Mon 4 Nov 2024 07.54 

Quincy Jones, a titan of American entertainment who worked with stars from Frank Sinatra to Michael Jackson and Will Smith, has died aged 91.

Quincy Jones
Photograph by Canadian Press
Poster by T.A.

Quincy Jones: the day Michael Jackson's pet snake got loose in the studio

He played Vegas with Sinatra, produced Miles Davis and borrowed Bowie’s yacht to go on holiday. Quincy Jones talks about growing up in gangland Chicago, Joe Pesci’s jazz album – and why he’ll leave the US if his former friend Trump wins

Stephen Smith
Tuesday 23 August 2016 18.17 BST

Y

ou might imagine that the best connected man in London would be a faceless civil servant who has the mobile number of every world leader and his or her pharmacologist. In fact, the title might belong to a stooped and slightly deaf 83-year-old, who is humming trumpet parts in a rehearsal room in the shadow of the Shard.

Quincy Jones has steadily accumulated kudos and leverage everywhere from the cat houses of the old R&B circuit to the Oval Office. And now he’s dropping names with the practised dispatch of a short order chef cracking eggs into a skillet. Sure, he knows Donald Trump from way back. The two men were once friends, though Jones growls: “I’ll leave the country if that sucker wins.” (Of course, he may be a little parti pris, as he was the musical director of Barack Obama’s inauguration ceremony.) David Bowie? A huge loss as well as a dear friend, from whom Jones somewhat improbably rented a yacht for his vacations.