Rashida Jones remembers her late father Quincy Jones as a ‘culture shifter’ in heartfelt tribute

By CNN Newsource

Published November 7, 2024 2:10 pm

By Alli Rosenbloom, CNN

(CNN) — Rashida Jones is honoring her father, music legend Quincy Jones, who died at 91 earlier this week.

The younger Jones posted a throwback photo of herself as a baby being held by her father on her Instagram page on Thursday, accompanied by a heartfelt tribute written in the caption.

The “Parks and Rec” actress remembered her father as an icon, a “culture shifter” and a “genius,” writing that these superlatives are “all accurate descriptions of my father but his music (and ALL of his work) was a channel for his love.”

“He WAS love. He made everyone he ever met feel loved and seen. That’s his legacy,” she wrote. “I was fortunate enough to experience this love in close proximity.”

Jones also reminisced about early childhood memories she has of spending time with her father late at night, when she’d find him “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 wrote.

Quincy Jones died on Sunday at his home in Bel Air, California, surrounded by his children and other family members, his publicist previously told CNN in a statement. He shared his daughter Rashida Jones with his wife Peggy Lipton, to whom he was married from 1974 until 1990.

Known as a renowned jazz and pop musician, the elder Jones was also a prolific cross-genre composer, arranger, conductor, record label executive and civil rights advocate.

His career in entertainment boasted a long and varied list of impressive credits, including composing the score for the Oscar-winning film “In the Heat of the Night,” producing Michael Jackson’s blockbuster 1982 album “Thriller,” and gathering dozens of pop and rock stars to record the 1985 charity single “We Are the World.”