Quincy Jones: Remembering a Special Legend

Two days ago, we said good­bye to Quin­cy Jones, a vision­ary whose influ­ence stretch­es far beyond music into the hearts of every­one he touched. Quin­cy was more than an icon — he was a men­tor, an inspi­ra­tion and a dear friend of the May­bach Foundation.

Quin­cy Jones was a cre­ative giant whose impact spanned music, film, and tele­vi­sion, with 28 Gram­my Awards and icon­ic works like Michael Jackson’s Thriller and Frank Sina­tra. He broke bar­ri­ers as the first Black exec­u­tive at a major record label and pro­duced ground­break­ing projects, from The Col­or Pur­ple to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

Quin­cy first joined us in 2007 at our May­bach Foun­da­tion Men­tor­ing Lun­cheon in Cannes – sup­port­ed by the May­bach Brand. When Uli May­bach asked him to speak about the impor­tance of men­tor­ship, he didn’t hes­i­tate. For Quin­cy, men­tor­ship was per­son­al — he cred­it­ed his own men­tors, like Count Basie and Clark Ter­ry, with shap­ing his path. „If you can see it, you can be it,“ he told us.

His com­mit­ment to lift­ing oth­ers up was rec­og­nized when Har­vard named him their first-ever Men­tor of the Year, a tes­ta­ment to the impact he had on so many lives. He believed deeply that one person’s suc­cess could open doors for oth­ers. His lega­cy of men­tor­ship con­tin­ues to res­onate deeply with our mis­sion and his friend­ship has been a cher­ished gift.

Today, we con­tin­ue to hon­or Quincy’s mem­o­ry. The May­bach Foun­da­tion is eter­nal­ly grate­ful to have shared a part of our jour­ney with this extra­or­di­nary indi­vid­ual. Rest in peace, Quincy.