Brilliance of Jones outshone his Michael Jackson albums

The late great music producer Quincy Jones is famous for working with the King of Pop’ but he did so much more, including playing trumpet for Presley, arranging for Sinatra and leading the way for Black talent, writes Mark Beaumont

- Mark Beaumont

Bruce Springsteen parked up across the street and wandered through the crowds at the gate to the studio. Inside, Michael Jackson was already recording his vocal parts as Billy Joel and Stevie Wonder paid their respects to Ray Charles, and Diana Ross jumped playfully into Bob Dylan’s lap.

And still they came: Paul Simon, Tina Turner, Dionne Warwick, Lindsey Buckingham, every major star in American music bar Madonna and Prince – all drawn to A&M Recording Studios to tape the USA for Africa single “We Are the World” on the evening of 28 January 1985, marshalled by one of the fundamental figures in US music and arguably the most successful producer of all time, Quincy Jones.

That Jones, who died on Sunday aged 91, took the producer’s chair at the most star-studded and ego-laden recording session in history – an experience he described as “like running through hell with gasoline drawers on” – is the ultimate testament to his elevated standing in the US music pantheon.

His production work on Jackson’s Off the Wall, Bad and Thriller, secured his position as one of the biggest and most powerful names in production. Thriller went on to become the bestselling album ever. By then, though, he’d already kicked down numerous barriers to become a groundbreaking focal presence in American pop culture.

Born in Chicago, this shrewd and streetwise jazz trumpeter and bandleader had vowed to conquer the music industry, onstage and off. In 1961, he rose through the ranks of Mercury Records to become its first African American vice-president at 28 years old, en route to producing and playing with Frank Sinatra and a vast array of jazz and soul greats.