A true genius Quincy Jones, by his musical collaborators

A "triple threat" in the entertainment industry is someone who can act, dance and sing.

- Ben Beaumont-Thomas

Quincy Jones, who died this week aged 91, was something like an octuple threat, a talent with no equivalent in pop culture.

After a youth pockmarked with poverty and physical abuse, he became a skilled trumpeter and pianist with a profound grasp of music theory, teeing up work as a performer, composer, conductor, bandleader and arranger for jazz bands big and small, notably those of Dizzy Gillespie and Count Basie.

Then, as pop swept youth culture, his lack of snobbery and zeal for music meant he could cross over.

His solo career was remarkable. He wrote two dozen film scores, and became the first black nominee in that category at the Academy Awards. But his production for other artists secured his status, most notably for three Michael Jackson albums including Thriller, the biggest seller in pop history.

When he needed backing singers for Donna Summer's State of Independence, Jackson, Lionel Richie and Stevie Wonder were just three Jones could call on for an all-star choir. That eye for talent meant he ably moved into film and TV production, influencing some shrewd casting decisions including Oprah Winfrey for Steven Spielberg's The Colour Purple and the rapper Will Smith for the sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, even though neither had acted before.

Below, collaborators from four different decades pay tribute to Jones's uncontainable talent.

Herb Alpert, bandleader and head of A&M Records, who signed Jones When I had my first hit record in 1962, The Lonely Bull, he reached out to me. He had an authenticity that was habit-forming. He had this positive energy about him it seemed like he was already reaching for the stars.

We signed him at A&M and he did some beautiful albums for us.