Quincy Jones died exactly two weeks before he was set to receive an honorary Oscar at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences’ 15th Governors Awards on Sunday, Nov. 17. On June 12, when the award was announced, Academy president Janet Yang said in a statement: “Quincy Jones’ artistic genius and relentless creativity have made him one of the most influential musical figures of all time.”
This will be the second honorary Oscar for Jones, who was 91 when he died. He was voted the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1994. Jones accepted that award on the Oscar telecast in 1995 from his longtime friend Oprah Winfrey. He said in part, “This moment, this evening, this spot where I stand tonight was not my destination when I was young and full of vinegar. I did not engineer this journey. To tell you the truth, I don’t think I could even see this far. And now that I’m older and full of wonder, I can see that maybe other forces were at the wheel.”
Jones – who won 28 Grammys, a Primetime Emmy and a Tony – made awards show history many times. He is the only person to win Grammy Awards in six consecutive decades. He won his first Grammy in 1964 – best instrumental arrangement for arranging Count Basie’s recording of the Ray Charles smash “I Can’t Stop Loving You.” He won four Grammys in the 1970s, 14 in the 1980s, seven in the 1990s and one each in the 2000s and 2010s. He won best spoken word album in 2002 for Q – The Autobiography of Quincy Jones and best music film in 2019 for Quincy.
In 2001, he received the Kennedy Center Honors, alongside Julie Andrews, Van Cliburn, Jack Nicholson and Luciano Pavarotti. In 2013, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (in the non-performers category) by Winfrey.
Here are 10 times Quincy Jones made awards history.
Jones became the first Black composer to receive an Oscar nomination for best original song for “The Eyes of Love” from Banning. (His collaborator, Bob Russell, was the first Black lyricist to be nominated.) That same year, Jones became only the third Black composer to be nominated in a scoring category, for In Cold Blood. (The first two Black composers to land scoring nods were Duke Ellington, for Paris Blues, and Calvin Jackson, for The Unsinkable Molly Brown).
Jones was the first Black musician to be hired as music director on the annual Oscar telecast.
Jones won a Primetime Emmy for composing music for the landmark 1977 miniseries Roots. He collaborated with Gerald Fried on music for the miniseries, which won outstanding achievement in music composition for a series (dramatic underscore). Jones’ album from the show, released on A&M Records, reached No. 21 on the Billboard 200 and went gold.
Jones won four Grammys, all in collaboration with Michael Jackson. They shared awards for record of the year (“Beat It”), album of the year (Thriller), best recording for children (E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial) and producer of the year, non-classical. It was Jones’ second win for producer of the year, non-classical. He had won for the first time in 1982. He was the first two-time winner in the category (and would go on to become the first three-time winner. Keep reading.)
Jones won record of the year for producing USA for Africa’s “We Are the World,” two years after winning in that category for co-producing Jackson’s “Beat It” with Jackson. Jones was the first person to win two Grammys for record of the year for producing two different acts. Simon & Garfunkel and Roy Halee had previously won two awards for producing Simon & Garfunkel hits; Joel Dorn had won two awards for producing Roberta Flack hits.
Jones received a personal-best three Oscar nominations, all for his work on The Color Purple. He was nominated for best picture as one of the film’s producers (alongside Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall), best original score and best original song, for “Miss Celie’s Blues (Sister).” (Rod Temperton was among his collaborators in the two music categories.) Jones is, to this day, the only Black composer with three nods in scoring categories. He is one of two Black songwriters with three nods for best original song. The other is Lionel Richie, the third collaborator on “Miss Celie’s Blues (Sister).”
Jones had his biggest night at the Grammys, with six wins including album of the year for Back on the Block and producer of the year (non-classical). He was the first three-time winner in the latter category. David Foster, Babyface, Pharrell Williams and Jack Antonoff subsequently tied Q’s record. Babyface surpassed it with a fourth win in 1998.
Jones received a Grammy legend award, alongside Johnny Cash, Aretha Franklin and Billy Joel. The award came two years after he received a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy. Jones was the first person to receive both of those honors. Bee Gees, Johnny Cash, Aretha Franklin, Michael Jackson, Curtis Mayfield, Willie Nelson, Smokey Robinson, Frank Sinatra and Barbra Streisand have since also won both awards.
Jones won a Tony for serving as a producer of the revival of The Color Purple. Other producers of the show included Jones’ pal Oprah Winfrey and Frasier star Kelsey Grammer. The show beat revivals of Fiddler on the Roof, She Loves Me and Spring Awakening to take best revival of a musical.
Jones became the first person to receive 80 career Grammy nominations. His total has since been eclipsed by Beyoncé, Jay-Z and Paul McCartney, but Jones got there first.