John Altman (composer)
John Altman (born 5 December 1949, London) is a British film composer, music arranger, orchestrator and conductor.
[edit] Biography
Altman was introduced to the music of the 1930s and 1940s at an early age by an uncle who arranged and composed music for big bands and conducted for Judy Garland, the Marx Brothers, and Laurel and Hardy, among others. His only formal musical training was piano lessons as a child.[1] While enrolled at the University of Sussex he was involved in session work and gigs with Fleetwood Mac and Nico. His later studies at Birkbeck College were interrupted when he left school to work with Hot Chocolate as musical director for their concert tour for two years.[2] He also played saxophone in rock bands and with blues and jazz groups with such artists as Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Little Richard, and Van Morrison.[3] Among the many other artists Altman has played with over the years are Muddy Waters, Nick Drake, Jimmy Page, Little Richard, Rick Astley, The Comets, Spencer Davis.
In the mid-1970s, Altman began arranging and conducting, and worked with Alison Moyet, Aled Jones, Rod Stewart, George Michael, Tina Turner, Diana Ross, Graham Parker, Murray Head, Simple Minds, Prefab Sprout, Barry White, Bjork, Tom Jones, The Pretenders, Ian Dury, and Monty Python. For the latter he arranged the song Always Look on the Bright Side of Life for their 1979 film The Life of Brian. His association with Monty Python had started when he arranged the music for the Rutles television special All You Need Is Cash created by Eric Idle and Neil Innes. He orchestrated and conducted the soundtrack album for the Rutles film and fulfilled the same role on the Rutles 1996 album Archaeology. Altman arranged and conducted the music for the three BBC TV series of The Innes Book Of Records starring Rutles/Python composer Neil Innes and has made multiple related onstage appearances with Innes.
Altman has also been a frequent guest conductor for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Altman's screen career began as the musical arranger/director for the 1978 film Just a Gigolo. He continued in this capacity for numerous film and television productions, including Shadowlands, the score for The Sheltering Sky, Leon (The Professional) and TV adaptations of the Miss Marple novels by Agatha Christie. He served as the historical music advisor for Titanic and arranged and produced all the period music played by the on-board orchestra seen in the film. He was the first Western composer to score a Russian film (Tsareubiytsa, aka The Assassin of the Tsar).
Altman's credits as a film score composer include Hear My Song, Funny Bones, Beautiful Thing, The Matchmaker, Little Voice, Legionnaire, Hope Springs, Shall We Dance?, Akasha Gopuram, Shoot on Sight, Bhaji on the Beach, Bad Behaviour, Fidel, King of Texas, Beautiful Joe, On Thin Ice (produced by and starring Diane Keaton) and the controversial Emmy-nominated mini-series The Reagans. He also scored the classic tank chase sequence in the James Bond film GoldenEye, and arranged and produced the Academy Award-nominated period music James Cameron's film Titanic.
Altman is the most prolific writer of music for commercials, having scored more than 4,000 TV advertisements. In 2002, Britain’s premier advertising industry trade paper Campaign named him one of the “100 Most Influential Figures in Contemporary British Advertising” and one of the 5 top composers. His compositions for Levis and Renault won the Campaign Award for Best Soundtracks in 2003 and 2004. He won the inaugural MPA Music-in-Advertising Award. He scored Ridley Scott's promotional film for Prada.
Altman won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special for RKO 281 and was nominated in 2003 in the same category for The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone (starring Helen Mirren and Anne Bancroft). He won the BAFTA Award for Best Film Music for Hear My Song, the Television and Radio Industries Club Award for TV Theme Music of the Year 1993 for Peak Practice, and the ASCAP Film Award for Shall We Dance? and RKO 281. He received a Golden Reel nomination for his score for Little Voice.
He was musical director for the all-star band assembled for the 1981 Amnesty International benefit show The Secret Policeman's Other Ball - an ensemble that included Sting, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Phil Collins, Bob Geldof, Donovan and Midge Ure.
Altman is a highly accomplished jazz musician, lauded by respected critic Don Heckman in the Los Angeles Times as "one of the few film composers with authentic jazz skills." In the jazz world he has performed with Chet Baker, Plas Johnson, Ernie Watts, Red Holloway, Conte Candoli, Slim Gaillard, Barbara Morrison, Herb Geller, Wild Bill Davison, Bud Freeman, Les McCann, Percy Heath and many others. He conducted the Stan Tracey Big Band and the Durham Cathedral Choir for an album of Duke Ellington's Sacred Music.
The John Altman Big Band frequently performs in the US and UK. Personnel includes Wayne Bergeron, Andy Martin, Pete Christlieb, and Grant Geissman. His all-star US big band includes such jazz stars as Gary Foster, Warren Luening, Pete Christlieb, Peter Erskine, Alex Acuna, Tom Ranier and Andy Martin.
He is a co-host of the "10 Room" Monday night jam session in London which has won Club Night of the Year awards - and has featured guests such as: Lionel Richie, Macy Gray, Will Smith, Black Eyed Peas, Alicia Keys, Najee, Wycliff, Shaq O'Neill, Jah Rule, the Roots, The Neptunes, R. Kelly, Mario, Roy Ayers, Omar, Chaka Khan, Chris Tucker and the Back Street Boys.
His most recent jazz quartet CD You Started Something was released in January 2006 on the Bronze Jazz label, of which he is A&R Director, and was named 'Jazz CD Of The Month' in The Observer. His previous CD (featuring his orchestra with jazz singer Joan Viskant) also received this accolade.
