Quincy Jones, the talented music titan whose vast legacy spanned from producing Michael Jackson’s landmark “Thriller” album to writing award-winning film and television soundtracks to collaborating with Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles and hundreds of other recording artists, has died. 91 years old. .

Jones’ publicist, Arnold Robinson, says he died Sunday night at his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles, surrounded by his family.

“Tonight, with a full but broken heart, we must share the news of the passing of our father and brother Quincy Jones,” the family said in a statement. “And while this is an incredible loss for our family, we celebrate the great life he lived and know there will never be another like him.”

Jones rose from working with gangs on Chicago’s South Side to the very heights of show business, becoming one of the first black executives to prosper in Hollywood and leaving behind a vast musical catalog that includes some of the richest moments in history. American song and rhythm. . Over the past half century, it was difficult to find a music lover who didn’t have at least one record with Jones’ name on it or someone in the music, television or film industries who didn’t have some connection to him.

Jones was in the company of presidents and foreign leaders, movie stars and musicians, philanthropists and business leaders. He toured with Count Basie and Lionel Hampton, arranged records for Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, composed the soundtracks for “Roots” and “In the Heat of the Night,” organized President Clinton’s first inaugural celebration and oversaw the all-star recording of “ “We are the world.”

In a career that began when records were still played on vinyl at 78 rpm, singling out any work seems unfair. But the honors probably go to his productions with Jackson on “Off the Wall,” “Thriller” and “Bad,” albums universal in their style and appeal. Jones’ versatility and imagination fit perfectly with Jackson’s explosive talent as he sensationally transformed from child star to “King of Pop.” On classic songs like “Billie Jean” and “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” Jones and Jackson drew on disco, funk, rock, pop, R&B, jazz and African chants. For “Thriller,” some of the most memorable touches originated with Jones, who recruited Eddie Van Halen for a guitar solo on the genre-defying “Beat It” and brought in Vincent Price for a macabre voiceover on the main song.

“Thriller” sold more than 20 million copies in 1983 alone, helped Jackson become the first major black artist to have a video played on MTV, and influenced countless artists.

“Michael had the look and the voice, and I had every sound you could imagine,” Jones would explain.

The list of his honors and awards fills 18 pages in his 2001 autobiography “Q”: 28 Grammy Awards (out of 80 nominations), an honorary Academy Award and an Emmy for “Roots.” He also received the Legion of Honor of France and the Rudolph Valentino Prize of the Republic of Italy. In 2001, Jones was named a Kennedy Center Honoree for his contributions to American culture. He was the subject of a 1990 documentary, “Listen Up: The Lives of Quincy Jones,” and his memoir made him a best-selling author.

“Despite all the Grammys and the special awards and testimonies that maturity grants, it will always be the values ​​that you carry within you (work, love and integrity) that have the greatest value, because they are the ones that help you fulfill your dreams. intact, your heart firm and your spirit ready for another day,” he wrote in his book.

Born in Chicago in 1933, Jones would cite the hymns his mother sang at home as the first music he remembered. But she sadly recalled her childhood, telling Oprah Winfrey that “there are two types of people: those who have loving parents or caregivers and those who don’t. There is nothing in between.” Jones’ mother suffered emotional problems and was eventually institutionalized, a loss that made the world seem “meaningless” to Quincy. He spent much of his time in Chicago on the streets, with gangs, stealing and fighting.

Music was his passion and, almost literally, his salvation. As a child, he learned that a neighbor in Chicago had a piano and soon he was constantly playing it himself. His father moved to Washington state when Quincy was 10 and his world changed at a neighborhood recreation center. Jones and some friends had broken into the kitchen and helped themselves to lemon meringue pie when Jones noticed a small room nearby with a stage. There was a piano on the stage.

“I went up there, stopped, looked, and then jingled for a moment,” he wrote in his autobiography. “That’s where I started to find peace. I was 11 years old. I knew this was it for me. Forever.”

Within a few years he was already playing the trumpet and became friends with a young blind musician named Ray Charles, with whom he became a lifelong friend. He was talented enough to win a scholarship to Boston’s Berklee College of Music, but abandoned his studies when Hampton invited him to tour with his band. Jones went on to work as an independent composer, director, arranger and producer. As a teenager, he endorsed Billie Holiday. When he was in his twenties, he was touring with his own band.

“We had the best jazz band on the planet, and yet we were literally starving,” Jones later told Musician magazine. “That’s when I discovered that music existed and that the music business existed. If I were to survive, I would have to learn the difference between the two.”

His survivors include actress Rashida Jones and five other daughters: Jolie Jones Levine, Rachel Jones, Martina Jones, Kidada Jones and Kenya Kinski-Jones; son Quincy Jones III; brother Richard Jones and sisters Theresa Frank and Margie Jay.