He considered him a pygmalion. A few hours after his agent announced the death of Quincy Jones, Will Smith paid tribute to the musician on Instagram, posting a black-and-white photo of the two artists. “ Quincy Jones is the perfect combination of mentor, father and friend. He brought out the best in me. He defended me. He nurtured me. He encouraged me. He inspired me. He watched over me when he needed to. He let me use his wings until mine were strong enough to fly”, he wrote under a snapshot of the two of them smiling.

Quincy Jones was the man who, in the early 1990s, cast Will Smith, aged just 20, in the role of the hero of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. The American musician was, in fact, one of the major creative forces behind this cult 1990s sitcom, since he was both producer and composer of the cult song Yo Home to Bel-Air.

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Legendary musician and producer Quincy Jones dies aged 91

An exceptional music producer

The announcement of the American producer’s death was relayed on Sunday November 3 by his agent, Arnold Robinson. “ Tonight, it is with heavy hearts that we must share the news of the passing of our father and brother Quincy Jones. This is a terrible loss for us. He had an incredibly rich life and we know that he will be irreplaceable”, wrote the artist’s family in a statement.

Over the course of his career, Quincy Jones worked with song, pop and jazz legends such as Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin. He will go down in contemporary music history as the producer of the best-selling album in history, the Thriller (1982), written and performed by Michael Jackson. The commercial and artistic triumph of this record of all records marked the apogee of a career that had begun in the early 1950s and had long remained in the shadows, but dedicated to the service of highly successful performers, films and TV series.