Music giant Quincy Jones was laid to rest in a private ceremony in Los Angeles, a week after his death at age 91. A larger, more public memorial is also being planned.
The family of the 28-time Grammy winning producer, arranger and composer said in a statement to The Associated Press that the “intimate ceremony included Jones’ seven children, his brother, two sisters, and immediate family members.”
The family did not reveal the cemetery where the ceremony took place. They added that they remain “enormously grateful for the outpouring of condolences and tributes from his friends and fans from around the world. Details for a memorial celebration of Jones’ life will be announced at a later date.”
Jones died surrounded by his family at his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles on 3 November.
His seven decades of musical mastery included producing Michael Jackson’s Thriller album, writing prize-winning film scores and collaborating on classic recordings with Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, and hundreds of others.
He was nominated for Album of the Year five times, winning twice: for Thriller in 1984 and for his own record, Back on the Block, in 1989.
Jones and Sinatra‘s 1964 version of “Fly Me to the Moon” became the first song played on the moon, when astronaut Buzz Aldrin played it on a portable cassette player as he stepped onto the lunar surface, in 1969.
Jones was the first African-American to be named as musical director and conductor of the Oscars in 1971, as well as the first Black artist to receive the AMPAS Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1995.
He also discovered and helped support the careers of Will Smith and LL Cool J by executive-producing series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and In the House, respectively.
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Tributes to him after his death came from some of the biggest figures in media and politics. Saturday Night Live which he once hosted, paid tribute to him a night before his service with a memorial photo in a quiet moment of the show.
Parks and Recreation star Rashida Jones paid tribute to her father in a moving post on social media.
“My dad was nocturnal his whole adult life. He kept ‘jazz hours’ starting in high school and never looked back. When I was little, I would wake up in the middle of the night to search for him,” she wrote, alongside a throwback picture of herself as a baby with Jones.
“Undoubtedly, he would be somewhere in the house, composing (old school, with a pen and sheet music). He would never send me back to bed. He would smile and bring me into his arms while he continued to work… there was no safer place in the world for me,” she added.
In lieu of flowers, Jones’ family asked for donations to the Jazz Foundation of America.
