Quincy Jones
Musician, producer, arranger, and composer Quincy Jones released his autobiography, Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones (Doubleday), and a 4-CD box set collecting his work, Q: The Musical Biography of Quincy Jones (Rhino) in 2001. Over his fifty-year career, he worked with nearly every major figure in the music industry. As a teenager, he played backup for Billie Holiday alongside his 16-year-old friend, Ray Charles. At 18, he began playing the trumpet in Lionel Hampton's band with Clifford Brown. He went on to collaborate with Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, Lesley Gore, and many others. He wrote the theme songs for Sanford & Son and Ironside and composed music for the films In Cold Blood, For the Love of Ivy, and The Pawnbroker. His biggest commercial success came from producing and arranging Michael Jackson's 1982 hit album Thriller.