John Altman (composer)
Encyclopedia
John Altman is a British
film
composer
, music arranger, orchestrator and conductor.
s 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. 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. 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
. 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 Russia
n 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.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, music arranger, orchestrator and conductor.
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 bandBig band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
s and conducted for Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
, the Marx Brothers
Marx Brothers
The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act, originally from New York City, that enjoyed success in Vaudeville, Broadway, and motion pictures from the early 1900s to around 1950...
, and Laurel and Hardy
Laurel and Hardy
Laurel and Hardy were one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comedy double acts of the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema...
, among others. His only formal musical training was piano lessons as a child. While enrolled at the University of Sussex
University of Sussex
The University of Sussex is an English public research university situated next to the East Sussex village of Falmer, within the city of Brighton and Hove. The University received its Royal Charter in August 1961....
he was involved in session work and gigs with Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac are a British–American rock band formed in 1967 in London.The only original member present in the band is its eponymous drummer, Mick Fleetwood...
and Nico
Nico
Nico was a German singer, lyricist, composer, musician, fashion model, and actress, who initially rose to fame as a Warhol Superstar in the 1960s...
. His later studies at Birkbeck College
Birkbeck, University of London
Birkbeck, University of London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It offers many Master's and Bachelor's degree programmes that can be studied either part-time or full-time, though nearly all teaching is...
were interrupted when he left school to work with Hot Chocolate as musical director for their concert tour for two years. He also played saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
in rock bands
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
and with blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
groups with such artists as Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
, Bob Marley
Bob Marley
Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley, OM was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician. He was the rhythm guitarist and lead singer for the ska, rocksteady and reggae band Bob Marley & The Wailers...
, Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
, Phil Collins
Phil Collins
Philip David Charles "Phil" Collins, LVO is an English singer-songwriter, drummer, pianist and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for British progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist....
, Little Richard
Little Richard
Richard Wayne Penniman , known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist, and actor, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the 1950s. He was also the first artist to put the funk in the rock and roll beat and...
, and Van Morrison
Van Morrison
Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...
. Among the many other artists Altman has played with over the years are Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield , known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues"...
, Nick Drake
Nick Drake
Nicholas Rodney "Nick" Drake was an English singer-songwriter and musician. Though he is best known for his sombre guitar based songs, Drake was also proficient at piano, clarinet and saxophone...
, Jimmy Page
Jimmy Page
James Patrick "Jimmy" Page, OBE is an English multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. He began his career as a studio session guitarist in London and was subsequently a member of The Yardbirds from 1966 to 1968, after which he founded the English rock band Led Zeppelin.Jimmy Page...
, Little Richard
Little Richard
Richard Wayne Penniman , known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist, and actor, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the 1950s. He was also the first artist to put the funk in the rock and roll beat and...
, Rick Astley
Rick Astley
Richard Paul "Rick" Astley is an English singer-songwriter, musician, and radio personality. He is known for his 1987 song, "Never Gonna Give You Up", which was a #1 hit single in 25 countries...
, The Comets, Spencer Davis
Spencer Davis
Spencer David Nelson Davis is a British musician and multi-instrumentalist, and the founder of the 1960s rock band, the Spencer Davis Group.-Early life:...
.
In the mid-1970s, Altman began arranging and conducting, and worked with Alison Moyet
Alison Moyet
Alison Moyet , is an English singer, songwriter and performer noted for her bluesy voice.Her UK album sales have reached a certified 2.3 million, with 800,000 singles sold, all in the UK, where all seven of her studio albums and three compilation albums have charted in the Top 40 UK Album Chart,...
, Aled Jones
Aled Jones
Aled Jones is a Welsh singer and television/radio personality, broadcaster and television presenter who first came to fame as a treble...
, Rod Stewart
Rod Stewart
Roderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE is a British singer-songwriter and musician, born and raised in North London, England and currently residing in Epping. He is of Scottish and English ancestry....
, George Michael
George Michael
George Michael is a British musician, singer, songwriter and record producer who rose to fame in the 1980s when he formed the pop duo Wham! with his school friend, Andrew Ridgeley...
, Tina Turner
Tina Turner
Tina Turner is an American singer and actress whose career has spanned more than 50 years. She has won numerous awards and her achievements in the rock music genre have led many to call her the "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll".Turner started out her music career with husband Ike Turner as a member of the...
, Diana Ross
Diana Ross
Diana Ernestine Earle Ross is an American singer, record producer, and actress. Ross was lead singer of the Motown group The Supremes during the 1960s. After leaving the group in 1970, Ross began a solo career that included successful ventures into film and Broadway...
, Graham Parker
Graham Parker
Graham Parker is a British rock singer and songwriter, who is best known as the lead singer of the popular British band Graham Parker & the Rumour.-Early career :...
, Murray Head
Murray Head
Murray Seafield Saint-George Head is a British actor and singer, most recognised for his international hit songs "Superstar" and "One Night in Bangkok" and his album Say It Ain't So...
, Simple Minds
Simple Minds
Simple Minds are a Scottish rock band who achieved worldwide popularity from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s. The band produced a handful of critically acclaimed albums in the early 1980s and best known for their #1 US, Canada and Netherlands hit single "Don't You ", from the soundtrack of the...
, Prefab Sprout
Prefab Sprout
Prefab Sprout are an alternative English pop rock band from Witton Gilbert, County Durham, England who rose to fame during the 1980s. Eight of their albums have reached the Top 40 in the UK Albums Chart, and one of their singles, "The King of Rock 'n' Roll", peaked at number seven in the UK...
, Barry White
Barry White
Barry White, born Barry Eugene Carter , was an American composer and singer-songwriter.A five-time Grammy Award-winner known for his distinctive bass voice and romantic image, White's greatest success came in the 1970s as a solo singer and with the Love Unlimited Orchestra, crafting many enduring...
, Bjork
Björk
Björk Guðmundsdóttir , known as Björk , is an Icelandic singer-songwriter. Her eclectic musical style has achieved popular acknowledgement and popularity within many musical genres, such as rock, jazz, electronic dance music, classical and folk...
, Tom Jones
Tom Jones (singer)
Sir Thomas John Woodward, OBE , known by his stage name Tom Jones, is a Welsh singer.Since the mid 1960s, Jones has sung many styles of popular music – pop, rock, R&B, show tunes, country, dance, techno, soul and gospel – and sold over 100 million records...
, The Pretenders
The Pretenders
The Pretenders are an English rock band formed in Hereford, England in March 1978. The original band consisted of initiator and main songwriter Chrissie Hynde , James Honeyman-Scott , Pete Farndon , and Martin Chambers...
, Ian Dury
Ian Dury
Ian Robins Dury was an English rock and roll singer, lyricist, bandleader and actor who initially rose to fame during the late 1970s, during the punk and New Wave era of rock music...
,
and Monty Python
Monty Python
Monty Python was a British surreal comedy group who created their influential Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series...
. For the latter he arranged the song Always Look on the Bright Side of Life
Always Look on the Bright Side of Life
"Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" is a popular song written by Eric Idle that was originally featured in the 1979 film Monty Python's Life of Brian and has gone on to become a common singalong at public events such as football matches as well as funerals.-History:Whilst trying to come up...
for their 1979 film The Life of Brian. His association with Monty Python had started when he arranged the music for the Rutles
The Rutles
The Rutles are a band that are known for their visual and aural pastiches and parodies of The Beatles. Originally created by Eric Idle and Neil Innes as a fictional band to be featured as part of various 1970s television programming, the group recorded, toured, and released two UK chart hits in...
television special All You Need Is Cash created by Eric Idle
Eric Idle
Eric Idle is an English comedian, actor, author, singer, writer, and comedic composer. He was as a member of the British comedy group Monty Python, a member of the The Rutles on Saturday Night Live and author of the play, Spamalot....
and Neil Innes
Neil Innes
Neil James Innes is an English writer and performer of comic songs, best known for his collaborative work with Monty Python, and for playing in the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and later The Rutles.-Personal life:...
. 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
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It tours widely, and is sometimes referred to as "Britain's national orchestra"...
.
Altman's screen career began as the musical arranger/director for the 1978 film Just a Gigolo
Schöner Gigolo, armer Gigolo
Schöner Gigolo, armer Gigolo is a 1978 film directed by David Hemmings and starring David Bowie. Set in post-World War I Berlin, it also featured Sydne Rome, Kim Novak and, in her last screen appearance, Marlene Dietrich...
. He continued in this capacity for numerous film and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
productions, including Shadowlands
Shadowlands
Shadowlands is a 1985 television film, written by William Nicholson, directed by Norman Stone and produced by David M. Thompson for BBC Wales. Its subject is the relationship between Oxford don and author, C. S. Lewis and Joy Gresham....
, the score for The Sheltering Sky, Leon (The Professional) and TV adaptations of the Miss Marple
Miss Marple
Jane Marple, usually referred to as Miss Marple, is a fictional character appearing in twelve of Agatha Christie's crime novels and in twenty short stories. Miss Marple is an elderly spinster who lives in the village of St. Mary Mead and acts as an amateur detective. She is one of the most famous...
novels by Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
. He served as the historical music advisor for Titanic
Titanic (1997 film)
Titanic is a 1997 American epic romance and disaster film directed, written, co-produced, and co-edited by James Cameron. A fictionalized account of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, it stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson, Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater and Billy Zane as Rose's fiancé, Cal...
and arranged and produced all the period music played by the on-board orchestra seen in the film. He was the first Western
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
composer to score a Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n film (Tsareubiytsa, aka The Assassin of the Tsar).
Altman's credits as a film score
Film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
composer include Hear My Song
Hear My Song
Hear My Song is a 1991 film, written by the actors Peter Chelsom and Adrian Dunbar , based on the story of Irish tenor Josef Locke...
, Funny Bones
Funny Bones
Funny Bones is a 1995 comedy-drama film from Disney's Hollywood Pictures. It was written, directed and produced by Peter Chelsom, co-produced by Simon Fields, and co-written by Peter Flannery. The music score was by John Altman and the cinematography by Eduardo Serra...
, Beautiful Thing
Beautiful Thing
Originally Beautiful Thing is a play written by Jonathan Harvey and first performed in 1993. A screen adaptation of the play was released in 1996 by Channel 4 Films, with a revised screenplay also by Harvey. Initially, the film was only intended for television broadcast but it was so well-received...
, The Matchmaker
The MatchMaker (1997 film)
The MatchMaker is a 1997 film comedy film set in Ireland.-Plot:Marcy Tizzard is assistant to Senator John McGlory from Boston, Massachusetts...
, Little Voice
Little Voice (film)
Little Voice is a 1998 British drama film with music written and directed by Mark Herman. The screenplay is based on the play The Rise and Fall of Little Voice by Jim Cartwright.- Plot :...
, Legionnaire
Legionnaire (film)
Legionnaire is a 1998 film starring Jean-Claude Van Damme as a 1920s boxer who wins a fight after having been hired by gangsters to lose it, then flees to join the French Foreign Legion. The cast includes Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Steven Berkoff, Nicholas Farrell and Jim Carter...
, Hope Springs, Shall We Dance?
Shall We Dance? (2004 film)
Shall We Dance? is a 2004 American film. It is a remake of the award-winning Masayuki Suo 1996 Japanese film, Shall We Dance?. The film made its US premier at the Hawaii International Film Festival.-Plot:...
, Akasha Gopuram
Akasha Gopuram
Aakasha Gopuram is a 2008 Malayalam-language Indian feature film directed by K.P.Kumaran. It is based on Norwegian writer Henrik Ibsen's play The Master Builder. It stars Mohanlal, Nithya Menon, Bharath Gopi, Manoj K. Jayan, Srinivasan, Geethu Mohandas and Shwetha Menon. The movie was made with a...
, Shoot on Sight
Shoot on Sight
Shoot on Sight is a 2007 film directed by Jag Mundhra and produced by Aron Govil. The film was marketed and distributed globally by Aron Govil Productions Inc...
, Bhaji on the Beach
Bhaji on the Beach
Bhaji on the Beach is a 1993 film by director Gurinder Chadha with a screenplay by Meera Syal.-Plot synopsis:A diverse group of British women of South Asian descent go on a day trip to the beach in Blackpool; despite their differences—the older women are more traditional and conservative,...
, 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
GoldenEye
GoldenEye is the seventeenth spy film in the James Bond series, and the first to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film was directed by Martin Campbell and is the first film in the series not to take story elements from the works of novelist Ian Fleming...
, and arranged and produced the Academy Award-nominated period music James Cameron's film Titanic
Titanic (1997 film)
Titanic is a 1997 American epic romance and disaster film directed, written, co-produced, and co-edited by James Cameron. A fictionalized account of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, it stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson, Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater and Billy Zane as Rose's fiancé, Cal...
.
Altman is the most prolific writer of music for commercials
Television advertisement
A television advertisement or television commercial, often just commercial, advert, ad, or ad-film – is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization that conveys a message, typically one intended to market a product...
, 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
Levi Strauss & Co.
Levi Strauss & Co. is a privately held American clothing company known worldwide for its Levi's brand of denim jeans. It was founded in 1853 when Levi Strauss came from Buttenheim, Franconia, to San Francisco, California to open a west coast branch of his brothers' New York dry goods business...
and Renault
Renault
Renault S.A. is a French automaker producing cars, vans, and in the past, autorail vehicles, trucks, tractors, vans and also buses/coaches. Its alliance with Nissan makes it the world's third largest automaker...
won the Campaign Award for Best Soundtracks in 2003 and 2004. He won the inaugural MPA Music-in-Advertising Award. He scored Ridley Scott
Ridley Scott
Sir Ridley Scott is an English film director and producer. His most famous films include The Duellists , Alien , Blade Runner , Legend , Thelma & Louise , G. I...
's promotional film for Prada
Prada
Prada S.p.A. is an Italian fashion label specializing in luxury goods for men and women , founded by Mario Prada.-Foundations:...
.
Altman won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special for RKO 281
RKO 281
RKO 281 is a 1999 historical drama film directed by Benjamin Ross. It stars Liev Schreiber, James Cromwell, Melanie Griffith, John Malkovich, and Roy Scheider and depicts the troubled production behind the 1941 film Citizen Kane...
and was nominated in 2003 in the same category for The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone
The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone (TV)
The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone is a 2003 TV movie remake of the 1961 film, based on the 1958 novella by Tennessee Williams. It first aired in the USA by Showtime Networks on 31 March 2003 and released on DVD by Showtime Entertainment in 2004....
(starring Helen Mirren and Anne Bancroft). He won the BAFTA Award for Best Film Music
BAFTA Award for Best Film Music
The Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music is an annual award given by British Academy of Film and Television Arts.-1960s:*1968 - The Lion in Winter - John Barry...
for Hear My Song, the Television and Radio Industries Club
Television and Radio Industries Club
The Television and Radio Industries Club is a British institution chartered in 1931 to "promote goodwill in the television and radio industries"...
Award for TV Theme Music of the Year 1993 for Peak Practice
Peak Practice
Peak Practice is a British drama series about a GP surgery in Cardale — a small fictional town in the Derbyshire Peak District — and the doctors who worked there. It ran on ITV from 10 May 1993 to 30 January 2002 and was one of their most successful series at the time...
, 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
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
benefit show The Secret Policeman's Other Ball
The Secret Policeman's Other Ball
The Secret Policeman's Other Ball was the fourth of the benefit shows staged by the British Section of Amnesty International to raise funds for its research and campaign work in the human rights field...
- an ensemble that included Sting, Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
, Jeff Beck
Jeff Beck
Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck is an English rock guitarist. He is one of three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds...
, Phil Collins
Phil Collins
Philip David Charles "Phil" Collins, LVO is an English singer-songwriter, drummer, pianist and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for British progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist....
, Bob Geldof
Bob Geldof
Robert Frederick Zenon "Bob" Geldof, KBE is an Irish singer, songwriter, author, occasional actor and political activist. He rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Irish rock band The Boomtown Rats in the late 1970s and early 1980s alongside the punk rock movement. The band had hits with his...
, Donovan
Donovan
Donovan Donovan Donovan (born Donovan Philips Leitch (born 10 May 1946) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music...
and Midge Ure
Midge Ure
James "Midge" Ure, OBE is a Scottish guitarist, singer, keyboard player, and songwriter...
.
Altman is a highly accomplished jazz musician, lauded by respected critic Don Heckman in the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
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
Wayne Bergeron
Wayne Bergeron, American jazz musician and trumpet player, was born in 1958 in Hartford, Connecticut and grew up Southern California. His interest in music started on the French Horn before he switched to, his claim to fame, the trumpet, in 8th grade...
, Andy Martin, Pete Christlieb
Pete Christlieb
Pete Christlieb is a jazz bebop, West Coast jazz and hard bop tenor saxophonist.-Biography:Christlieb was born in Los Angeles, California and is the son of bassoonist Don Christlieb...
, and Grant Geissman
Grant Geissman
Grant Geissman is a crossover jazz, contemporary jazz and new age guitarist and an Emmy-nominated composer for network TV series and TV movies. An in-demand studio musician, he has recorded extensively for several labels since 1976, and he can be heard playing guitar on the theme for Monk and...
. 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
A&R
Artists and repertoire is the division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists. It also acts as a liaison between artists and the record label.- Finding talent :...
Director, and was named 'Jazz CD Of The Month' in The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
. His previous CD (featuring his orchestra with jazz singer Joan Viskant) also received this accolade.