Rashida Jones Mourns Father Quincy Jones: “Your Love Lives Forever”
Actress Rashida Jones paid tribute to her late father, music producer Quincy Jones, on Thursday, writing on social media that he was a genius “culture shifter.”
Quincy Jones died Sunday at age 91. His family said in a statement at a time that it was “an incredible loss” and they would look to “celebrate the great life that he lived and know there will never be another like him.”
On social media Thursday, the daughter of the music legend wrote, “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. 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.”
The Parks and Rec star went on to say her father “was a giant. An icon. A culture shifter. A genius,” adding the monikers were “all accurate descriptions of my father but his music (and ALL of his work) was a channel for his love. He WAS love.”
She concluded, “He made everyone he ever met feel loved and seen. That’s his legacy. I was fortunate enough to experience this love in close proximity. I’ll miss his hugs and kisses and unconditional devotion and advice. Daddy, it is an honor to be your daughter. Your love lives forever.”
Jones received the Motion Picture Academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1995, the Grammy Legend Award in 1991 and 28 Grammys from an all-time best 80 nominations. He was to be presented with an honorary Oscar at the Governors Awards on Nov. 17.
His 60-years-career included Michael Jackson’s best-selling albums Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad and the development of Steven Spielberg’s 1985 adaptation of The Color Purple, with a young Oprah Winfrey.
In her own tribute, Winfrey referred to the producer as “My beloved Q,” writing that “My life changed forever for the better after meeting him” and that “he walked around with his heart wide open, and he treated everybody as if they were the most important person he’d ever met. He was the Light. No shadows.”
