Bayesian

Brief update in The Times interview today when they asked him what’s next: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/john-williams-maestro-of-the-melodic-spark-0w6mbp5fm
 
“Most imminently there's a piano concerto to be written for Emanuel Ax ("I finished the first movement yesterday")”

What a class act.

2022: "Indiana Jones is my last film score, I'm retiring from film scoring"
 
2023: Lucasfilm announces the Daisy Ridley film
 
Also 2023: "When I said I was retiring, I didn't mean I was retiring"
 
Coincidence? 🤔

Out of every artist in every genre on Spotify? Not really
 
If it makes you feel any better, he has more than double Zimmer's listeners

My list, in terms of personal enjoyment:
 
1.  A New Hope
2. The Last Jedi
3. Revenge of the Sith
4. The Force Awakens
5. The Phantom Menace
6. Solo
7. Empire Strikes Back
8. everything else
 
So the thing about TESB is that I never thought it was all that great, outside of the score and the last hour or so. Han is at his asshole-iest when we see him on Hoth and the movie is slo-o-ow when Luke gets to Dagobah. I know this opinion is unpopular, to say the least, but I figured it was worth getting it out there before the year runs out. 

Listened to this album for the first time today. Where the hell has this score been my whole life?? How did I manage to miss this (and the movie it was written for) for two decades?? And why hasn't it been expanded yet by a specialty label??
 
Count of Monte Cristo was directed by the guy who made Waterworld -- one of my favorite action/adventures of all time -- and Robin Hood PoT. Theoretically, I should have been all over this movie (and its score) from day one. Now I wish I had been.

Ah, yes, the Martian. A great Ridley Scott movie. You know, since Thanksgiving, almost all of my music and motion picture entertainment discoveries (outside of LLL’s Hook) are due to my newfound fascination with Sir Scott. After Napoleon came out, I realized I really didn’t know the man’s work outside of his biggest four or five films. By way of Napoleon, I learned about the Duellists (great movie)—and the terrific music of Howard Blake— and about Bondarchuk’s Waterloo from 1970, and then about other movies featuring Napoleon, including, just today, Count of Monte Cristo. Which then led me to learn about the music of Ed Shearmur. It’s been an interesting and rewarding few weeks.

Ah, yes, the Martian. A great Ridley Scott movie. You know, since Thanksgiving, almost all of my music and motion picture entertainment discoveries (outside of LLL’s Hook) are due to my newfound fascination with Sir Scott. After Napoleon came out, I realized I really didn’t know the man’s work outside of his biggest four or five films. By way of Napoleon, I learned about the Duellists (great movie)—and the terrific music of Howard Blake— and about Bondarchuk’s Waterloo from 1970, and then about other movies featuring Napoleon, including, just today, Count of Monte Cristo. Which then led me to learn about the music of Ed Shearmur. It’s been an interesting and rewarding few weeks.

This is a score that I really hope Intrada gets their hands on for a future release.

No kidding. Maybe with superhero fatigue finally setting in and a bit of luck, we might soon see studios pivot back toward literary sources again for story ideas.

No kidding. Maybe with superhero fatigue finally setting in and a bit of luck, we might soon see studios pivot back toward literary sources again for story ideas.

Listened to this album for the first time today. Where the hell has this score been my whole life?? How did I manage to miss this (and the movie it was written for) for two decades?? And why hasn't it been expanded yet by a specialty label??
 
Count of Monte Cristo was directed by the guy who made Waterworld -- one of my favorite action/adventures of all time -- and Robin Hood PoT. Theoretically, I should have been all over this movie (and its score) from day one. Now I wish I had been.

No kidding. Maybe with superhero fatigue finally setting in and a bit of luck, we might soon see studios pivot back toward literary sources again for story ideas.

Shearmur has always been supremely underrated.
 
I remember seeing the movie with my family when it aired on TV when I was a kid, I liked it quite a bit.
 
I miss those days when we had swashbuckling adventure movies based on old literary classics (Robin Hood PoT, 1993 The Three Musketeers, The Mask of Zorro, The Man with the Iron Mask, Count of Monte Cristo, etc).

Listened to this album for the first time today. Where the hell has this score been my whole life?? How did I manage to miss this (and the movie it was written for) for two decades?? And why hasn't it been expanded yet by a specialty label??
 
Count of Monte Cristo was directed by the guy who made Waterworld -- one of my favorite action/adventures of all time -- and Robin Hood PoT. Theoretically, I should have been all over this movie (and its score) from day one. Now I wish I had been.

A couple of jazz tunes from 50s before he got into film music that seriously and had his own jazz band
 
 
 
 
Another jazzy tune, Make Me Rainbows (1967). 
 
 
Finally, INCREDIBLE rendition of Gershwin's Bess. Recordings like these got me at the verge of crying of how much the world of jazz had lost.
 
 

Aaah....cold December Friday and red wine in the glass. Time for another John Williams piano performance. Now, I apparently screwed up last week, and I can't promise that it won't happen again, but here's hoping my sources are correct this time. I want to highlight Lola Albright's 1959 album DREAMSVILLE, orchestrated by the one and only Henry Mancini, which is indeed quite dreamy in sound and approach. Williams plays on most of the tracks (9 out of 12), according to my sources, including the title track, but that doesn't have a lot of prominent piano playing. What I think is nice about "Brief and Breezy", however, is that it a) doubles the xylophone so precisely and b) allows a little space for some solo playing:
 
 

It's Friday again. Realizing that I just repeated myself with another track from the Connie Haines album earlier, I had to make a txt file with my own (and everyone else's) picks in this thread so as not to repeat albums too much. At some point, one reaches the end of the albums, obviously, and will have to repeat. But that's OK.
 
Anyways, today's selection is from the 1957 album HOLIDAY IN SPAIN by the Lew Raymond Orchestra. Williams appears as pianist on two tracks, including the show-off number "Malaguana". Just listen to Williams flowing freely across the keys, capturing the Spanish temperament of the music. Goosebump-inducing! Alas, I could find this album neither on Spotify nor YouTube, but I've uploaded it for you here:
 
02 Malaguena.mp3

“I love his music! He’s right up there with Hans Zimmer!”
 
- far too many of them, unfortunately 

Keeping in mind that some films include scenes across different time periods, and Temple Doom should be watched AFTER Raiders, I don't care WHAT the on-screen date says, this is how you'd do it:
 
1839 - Amistad
1865 - Lincoln
1918 - War Horse
1930s - The Color Purple
1936 - Raiders of the Lost Ark
1935 - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
1938 - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
1941 - 1941
1941 - Empire of the Sun
1943 - Amazing Stories: The Mission
1944 - Schindler's List
1944 - Saving Private Ryan
1940s/50s - Tintin
1957 - Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
1957 - West Side Story
1960 - Bridge of Spies
1962 - The Fabelmans
1969 - Catch Me If You Can
1971 - Duel
1971 - The Post
1972 - Munich
1973 - The Sugarland Express
1975 - Jaws
1977 - Close Encounters
1981 - E.T.
1982 - Poltergeist (if you count it)
1982 - The BFG
1985 - Twilight Zone: The Movie (if you count it)
1985 - Amazing Stories: Ghost Train
1989 - Always
1991 - Hook
1993 - Jurassic Park
1997 - The Lost World
2004 - The Terminal
2005 - War of the Worlds
2045 - Ready Player One
2054 - Minority Report
2100s - A.I.

NEW PODCAST EPISODE! RETURN TO NEVERLAND: 'HOOK - THE ULTIMATE EDITION' PODCAST SPECIAL (Part 1) The Legacy of John Williams presents a multi-part podcast special dedicated to HOOK – THE ULTIMATE EDITION, a 3-CD set of John Williams’ magnificent score for the 1991 film directed by Steven Spielberg, now available from La-La Land Records. In Part One, soundtrack producer Mike Matessino sits down to talk about the genesis of Steven Spielberg’s 1991 fantasy epic, its place within the director’s filmography and the long history of how HOOK almost became a musical, while also addressing how it sits in the canon of the Steven Spielberg/John Williams collaboration; Matessino also talks about his friendship with lyricist Leslie Bricusse, the years-in-the-making process of assembling and producing the new set and his own personal journey to bring it to life with the utmost level of care and detail that such music always deserved. LISTEN tinyurl.com/23xppnvk Available on all major podcasting platforms.   https://www.facebook.com/thelegacyofjohnwilliams/posts/pfbid0e7oxKkcoyY7smUU5FfCFWi4Vdq53caF8vXKTofGAcdvikWMf1idWrTu5kqhzyrV8l

"Oh man this piece pisses me off.  Why did he micro-edit that part."
 
--JWFANers

"I love this song!"
 
- most of them, probably