His repertoire includes fluency in the trumpet, piano, singing and producing, and his 26 Grammy Awards perfectly complement the diversity of artists he's worked with, including Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, Ray Charles, Paul Simon and Aretha Franklin. The man, the myth, the legend is the one and only Quincy Jones, and his hand in several music, film and television projects will go down in history alongside the musical genius' smiling face.Quincy Delight Jones was born in Chicago, but moved to Seattle when he was young. Sucking in the Seattle music scene, Jones learned to play the trumpet in his teens, also singing in a gospel choir. After graduating from high school in 1950, Jones won a scholarship to Schillinger House (now known as the Berklee School of Music) but left after a year to move to New York City, working as an arranger for musicians like Count Basie and Dinah Washington. Continuing to perform, the musical virtuoso was eventually chosen to lead Dizzy Gillespie's ensemble, and after working with artists like Sarah Vaughan, Jones was named the vice president for Mercury in 1961, making history as the first African-American upper-level executive in the U.S. recording industry.Through the 1960s, Quincy Jones retained his juggling act as a composer, producer and arranger, honing his own big-band style with the 1969 album Walking in Space, which furthered his career as a recording artist. Jones continued to work with artists like Aretha Franklin, Paul Simon and Frank Sinatra in the ‘60s, but cut back on his hectic schedule after 1974 when he suffered a life-threatening brain aneurysm. The ‘80s saw collaborations with Chaka Khan, Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, and in 1985 Jones slowly crossed over into producing films and TV shows, starting with Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple and eventually moving into Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Mad TV.
