The Legacy of John Williams (Website & Podcast)

[Jay 37,369]

Maurizio has made a Halloween playlist of JW scores, available on Spotify or Youtube

 

JOHN WILLIAMS HALLOWEEN SPOOKTACULAR!

Ready for some musical Trick-Or-Treat? Celebrate Halloween with this special playlist curated by The Legacy of John Williams featuring scary, spooky and shiver-inducing selections from some of the Maestro's iconic film scores, including DRACULA, THE FURY, THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK, JAWS, JURASSIC PARK, HARRY POTTER. Prepare to be scared and thrilled by a selection of Maestro Williams' most frightening cues.

LISTEN on Spotify or YouTube and have a great (and safe) Halloween!

SPOTIFY: spoti.fi/2ZJB9JK
YOUTUBE: bit.ly/3Bq38Li

 

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=900698898433206&set=a.200527905116979

[Chewy 2,391]

On 08/09/2023 at 5:54 PM, Jay said:

The attendees will also have the chance to participate in a special screening

What was it?

[Omen II 1,235]

1 hour ago, Chewy said:

What was it?

 

Jaws in 3D.

[BB-8 3,478]

"Les trois dents de la mer"

[QuartalHarmony 543]

On 31/10/2023 at 9:03 PM, Jay said:

Maurizio has made a Halloween playlist of JW scores,

Lovely - I’m looking forward to the Christmas one now!

[Jay 37,369]

How is there still barely any commentary here about the event? I know people were asked not to share specifics about the talk, but there must be stories of the weekend as a whole that can be shared!

[scoreman36 68]

I think for me, one of the best things about this was hearing the 2 LSO musicians so genuinely excited, honoured, and proud to have worked with Williams. Also to see in person from their camaraderie with each other, and even their body language, how much it meant to them. And these are guys who have worked with EVERYONE from the film and classical world. 
Also the audio and video clips that Mike treated us to (which we’re not allowed to talk about) were just incredible. 
And I got to meet some lovely people. 
And I won a really decent haul of goodies in the raffle. 

[Dr. Rick 1,157]

Audio clips of an upcoming expanded release I’m assuming, but not being able to talk about a video clip has me intrigued.

[pete 907]

45 minutes ago, scoreman36 said:

Also the audio and video clips that Mike treated us to (which we’re not allowed to talk about) were just incredible. 

you’re allowed to type about them. As long as you don’t use your voice, it’s all cool. 

[Brando 1,864]

3 hours ago, scoreman36 said:

which we’re not allowed to talk about

Pretty ballsy to ask an entire group of people to not talk about something and expect them all to not say anything.

[Faleel 5,353]

2 hours ago, Brando said:

Pretty ballsy to ask an entire group of people to not talk about something and expect them all to not say anything.

They know where they live...

[Jay 37,369]

Thanks for sharing that, @scoreman36!  I hope more people share more thoughts!

[mahler3 478]

Here’s the event running order which hopefully paints a picture. We aren’t going to mention the clips from Mike publicly, but I’m sure those who were there can private message each other. We never said to not talk about the event after the fact. “The first rule of TLOJW is to talk about TLOJW” 😁

 

- CLIP: Video Introduction - 6 min

- Greetings and presentation of guests

- JW in London: an historical overview

- Remembering the Star Wars 1977 sessions with Eric and Hugh

- CLIP: 

- Working with JW as orchestra musicians (Eric and Hugh)

- CLIP: 

- Commentary

- CLIP: The Fury "A-B Comparison"

- JW on the scoring stage: how he works with the orchestra 

- CLIP:

- Commentary / Audience Q&A

 

INTERMISSION (10 min)

 

- Dracula: an overview (Emilio) 

- CLIP: Dracula's Death film clip - 6 min

- Commentary

- Techniques of film score recording

- CLIP: 

- Commentary

- CLIP: 

- Commentary

- CLIP: 

- Commentary / Audience Q&A

- Final greetings and prize draw raffle sorting 

 

The prize draw contents (10 Universal Studios branded goody bags - thank you Dave Norris!) consisted of:

JW scored 4K discs from UHE

La La Land Records & Intrada JW albums

Japanese imports of various JW albums 

DG Store exclusives of Blu-rays & Vinyls 

TLOJW T-shirts

Elmer Bernstein Commemorative Programme with a personal note from JW

The 2 star prize premium goody bags consisted of the above plus Taschen books, extra DG Store exclusives, the John T. Williams Jazz Beginnings album and a JW signed photo.

 

IMG_5281.heic

 

Seeing the new remaster of Jaws in Dolby Atmos with the proper 3D glasses was very memorable and a perfect end to the event. Both Eric & Hugh were particularly impressed! They hadn’t seen it since 1976!

 

We had a diverse audience and some composers and conductors were in attendance. Plus our poster artist Paul Shipper (who kindly signed many of the deluxe prints everyone received), voice actor Marc Silk and producers from LA & London. Thank you once again for attending. It was so great to meet many new and old friends.

 

The dinner afterwards was a cluster f@#k but it was a last minute change so couldn’t be helped. Food and service was good (Zizzi).

 

It was a joy to host this with Maurizio and we hope to do more in the future.

 

 

On 4/11/2023 at 1:28 PM, Omen II said:

 

Jaws in 3D.

I love how people laughed at this, it actually was Jaws in 3D, not Jaws 3D!!!!! :-)

[Jay 37,369]

Wow! Excellent overview! Too bad it was not all recorded for posterity!

[mahler3 478]

Mike M is happy with the clips being discussed, so be gone ambiguity! Here’s the array of audio / video treats which were played and Maurizio did sterling work editing the audio to video. All very elegant:

 

- CLIP: 1st SW cue ever recorded, aka "The Swashbucklers" - 6 min

 

- CLIP: JW on the scoring stage - Harry Potter Logo raw takes - 5 min

 

- CLIP: The Lost World raw session inserts - 5 min

 

- CLIP: Amazing Stories End Titles (components + full mix) - 4 min

 

- CLIP: CE3K Wild Choir Sweeteners - 5 min

 

- CLIP: E.T. Bike Chase Take 1 session - 4 min

 

- CLIP: Harry Potter Fluffy’s Harp rehearsals - 10 min

[enderdrag64 624]

48 minutes ago, mahler3 said:

- CLIP: 1st SW cue ever recorded, aka "The Swashbucklers" - 6 min

I thought there wasn't any recording session footage from ANH. Or was this just a section of isolated score from the movie? Or an edit of movie clips?
 

[DangerMotif 1,038]

I assume these will be used for the Documentary?

[Brando 1,864]

3 hours ago, DangerMotif said:

I assume these will be used for the Documentary?

I hope that and more!

[Manakin Skywalker 4,897]

3 hours ago, DangerMotif said:

I assume these will be used for the Documentary?

 

If there's indeed footage of the first Star Wars session ever, then it needs to be included! It's too historically significant for it to not be!

[mahler3 478]

These were all audio, as I said above Maurizio did sterling work adding video in the form of stills, logos and appropriate graphics.

[JTN 2,030]

On 5/11/2023 at 3:35 AM, Brando said:

Pretty ballsy to ask an entire group of people to not talk about something and expect them all to not say anything.

 

[Richard Penna 3,694]

On 05/11/2023 at 2:35 AM, Brando said:

Pretty ballsy to ask an entire group of people to not talk about something and expect them all to not say anything.

 

Had Mike played a preview of the upcoming 45-disc Star Wars ultimate deluxe definitive box, I could understand a bit of hush hush. But nothing in that list of clips feels like it warrants anything more than 'yeah, just don't record these on your phone, please'.

 

But it sounds like fun was had by all.

[bigjimwilson 256]

I think in Mike's own words (or words to similar effect remembered a bit wrong) these clips were the things he always wishes he could include in releases, but isn't allowed. So they felt like a really special privileged peek behind the curtain. Absolutely fascinating stuff. 

That, coupled with the request to not tag our location on social media and wotnot added to the general hush hush vibe. But I'm glad Mike has said we're cool to talk about the clips. Trouble is, try as I might, no one at the bus stop seems to care

[JTN 2,030]

13 minutes ago, bigjimwilson said:

That, coupled with the request to not tag our location on social media

Wow, they were really taking it too seriously, weren't they? I can imagine the Kreml went: Where could those damn JWFAN conspirators be at? What secrets could they be disclosing? Let's keep an eye on their social media and tap their phones in case we might find out some important information that might be a danger to our national security. - Geez louise...

 

13 minutes ago, bigjimwilson said:

Trouble is, try as I might, no one at the bus stop seems to care

[bigjimwilson 256]

32 minutes ago, JTW said:

Wow, they were really taking it too seriously, weren't they? I can imagine the Kreml went: Where could those damn JWFAN conspirators be at? What secrets could they be disclosing? Let's keep an eye on their social media and tap their phones in case we might find out some important information that might be a danger to our national security. - Geez louise...

I can see why it might look that way, but it's not like that at all. It's just we were very fortunate to be able to have the event in a very special space, and the people who worked there and made it available for the day asked if we could refrain from shouting about it. Sounds all very clandestine, but it's just a case of respecting their wishes. 

Well. that, AND all the national security secrets we discussed at length.

[JTN 2,030]

2 minutes ago, bigjimwilson said:

Well. that, AND all the national security secrets we discussed at length.

[bollemanneke 3,349]

Raw HP takes... AAAARGH!

[Richard Penna 3,694]

23 minutes ago, bigjimwilson said:

It's just we were very fortunate to be able to have the event in a very special space, and the people who worked there and made it available for the day asked if we could refrain from shouting about it.

 

What, the people who worked at the venue didn't want word spread about how great an event at their venue was?

 

I mean, not tagging on social media or mentioning anything about the gathering... what did they think you were doing there?  There was me about to suggest the organisers were taking this a tad too seriously.

[bigjimwilson 256]

48 minutes ago, Richard Penna said:

 

What, the people who worked at the venue didn't want word spread about how great an event at their venue was?

 

I mean, not tagging on social media or mentioning anything about the gathering... what did they think you were doing there?  There was me about to suggest the organisers were taking this a tad too seriously.

It's not a place that's normally open to outside hire. If we'd used the upstairs room at the "fiddle and pisspot" pub or somewhere, I'm sure they'd love a nice trip advisor write up about how great their facilities are for small gatherings of film music fanatics  But the polite request was made, and we all politely obliged. No grumbles. Just a great day.

[Omen II 1,235]

I certainly never interpreted the (in my opinion, perfectly reasonable) request not to record the proceedings or check in on Facebook - like I even know what that means! - as a command not to discuss the event with anyone afterwards.  The only thing I was not sure about was whether details of the various clips which Mike played could be disclosed, but @mahler3 seems to have put that one to bed above.

 

My favourite audio clip was a recording of Williams recording the 'wild takes' with the choir for Close Encounters of the Third Kind, with Spielberg in the booth requesting various different tempi and pitches.  There were a few audience questions, most of which I cannot remember now, but I do remember the LSO musicians citing Revenge of the Sith and Monsignor as their respective personal favourites of the Williams scores on which they played.  Eric Crees also said that John Williams was a better conductor than ninety percent of the career conductors he had worked with.

 

It was nice to meet both Tim and Maurizio briefly when I arrived, both of them being instantly recognisable from the various video podcasts I had seen over the years.  It is fair to say that most of the attendees were men (an observation which will come as no surprise to anyone here ), although amongst the few women there was composer Alexandra Harwood.  I was chatting to another of the attendees, a bloke called Adam beforehand who had travelled down from Liverpool for the event, quite impressive when I had just a short Tube journey.

 

I did not stay to watch the film as I had to see a man about a dog that evening, but it was a very enjoyable afternoon.  To my great surprise I was also one of the lucky winners in the raffle / prize draw.  I thought that maybe it would be one CD or a Legacy of John Williams keyring or something, but it was a mightily impressive bundle of Blu-Rays, CDs and other goodies which would have cost a small fortune to purchase new.

[Richard Penna 3,694]

3 hours ago, bigjimwilson said:

I think in Mike's own words (or words to similar effect remembered a bit wrong) these clips were the things he always wishes he could include in releases, but isn't allowed.

 

Is that 'not allowed' by the composer, or a more complex legal thing?

[bigjimwilson 256]

36 minutes ago, Richard Penna said:

 

Is that 'not allowed' by the composer, or a more complex legal thing?

I guess John has final say. So that's probably our answer. Could be both. 

[JTN 2,030]

After the event:

 

[thx99 1,740]

5 minutes ago, JTW said:

After the event:

 

 

What event?

[JTN 2,030]

1 minute ago, thx99 said:

 

What event?

Exactly. 

[Brando 1,864]

18 minutes ago, JTW said:

 

Moments after MM revealed to the audience he had on his hard drives the master files for every SW and Indy project known to man:

[Mr. Breathmask 555]

For a minute there, I was imagining you guys somehow laid eyes on the original cut of The Hunt. At this point, I'd give... a lot... to get a chance to see that.

 

Still sounds utterly fantastic though. I wish I could have been there.

[BB-8 3,478]

[Jay 37,369]

🔴 TWO VINTAGE JOHN WILLIAMS' SCORES RETURN IN A STUNNING 2-CD SET FROM QUARTET RECORDS!
As part of their end-of-the-year release slate, Quartet Records announced a stunning 2-CD set featuring two vintage scores by John Williams in a newly restored and remastered presentation. Both were composed for made-for-television films produced by Omnibus Productions directed by acclaimed director Delbert Mann and for which Williams won two Emmy Awards.
HEIDI (1968) features a gorgeous orchestral score brimful with lyricism, one of the very first example of John Williams' trademark symphonic style, while JANE EYRE (1970) is one of the Maestro's most refined works of his career in which he poured all his love for folk-inspired English music and also one of his own personal favorites.
Both works in this collection have been painstakingly restored and remastered by archival soundtrack producer Mike Matessino from new high-resolution transfers and newly discovered elements, thus bringing new clarity to both recordings. A 28-page color booklet with film stills and in-depth liner notes by film music expert John Takis completes the package.
Stay tuned for a special podcast episode with Mike Matessino and John Takis discussing this fantastic new release on The Legacy of John Williams 🎙
Order your copy 👉 quartetrecords.com/product/heidi-jane-eyre-2-cd/

 

https://www.facebook.com/thelegacyofjohnwilliams/posts/pfbid0XDsYchncJ3qb6i3vwewfWkmUxN1Nw6pL82yCHWZqH5fsrvyWgPe8Fjj5k34B1ecTl

[Jay 37,369]

Today is the 32nd anniversary of the day Hook opened in theaters, and The Legacy of John Williams has published an essay from @John Takis titled "John Williams and the Music of ‘Hook’"

 

https://thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com/2023/12/11/hook-essay-by-john-takis/

[Jay 37,369]

A MAGICAL PLACE FOR CHILDREN

An Essay by John Takis

To celebrate La-La Land Records' HOOK - THE ULTIMATE EDITION and coinciding with the anniversary of the film’s original release in US theaters (December 11, 1991), we present an essay by film music producer and writer John Takis (associate producer and co-writer of the liner notes of Hook – The Ultimate Edition), exploring the personal connection of the author with the film and its musical score.

READ tinyurl.com/2amvzknu

The Legacy of John Williams will soon publish an in-depth podcast special with producer Mike Matessino talking about the genesis of this historical soundtrack release and the longtime in the making process to bring it to life. Stay tuned!

https://www.facebook.com/thelegacyofjohnwilliams/posts/pfbid0QoFQE9Bz4GKm76fSaiDriJfJ9MQgzj1fEpqeWinez7cGZanuytwu7W7Dgpbir8jyl

[bollemanneke 3,349]

What a great read. (And can I also just point out that I love John Takis' measured and calm way of speaking in the 2012 Hook interview Tim Burden did?)

[Jay 37,369]

He's great

[Jay 37,369]

The latest podcast episode covers Heidi and Jane Eyre with Mike Matessino and @John Takis!

 

https://thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com/2023/12/21/heidi-and-jane-eyre-podcast/

[Chewy 2,391]

9 minutes ago, Jay said:

Latest podcast episode covers Heidi and Jane Eyre with Mike Matessino and @John Takis!

 

https://thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com/2023/12/21/heidi-and-jane-eyre-podcast/

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees! Listening immediately 

[1977 1,743]

Here we go!!!

[bollemanneke 3,349]

Ah, the joy of listening to... an hour-long phone call...

[bollemanneke 3,349]

Very interesting to hear that they were 'helping out' the studios with their archives! And the mix of Mike speaking about how they tried to find more cues and the love theme is so... perfect.

[GerateWohl 4,370]

Fine episode and interesting insights, especially on the Heidi score, which I am not familiar with. 

I just thought, when talking about Williams' television work, Maurizio should not just have mentioned John Burlingame, but also @Thor's lovely television walk through podcast, one of the few and easily available sources on the subject. 

 

[Holko 9,526]

I loved the look into JW's history!

 

And based on the Heidi samples, I'm completely sure I'll adore it. The main theme already feels like something I've always known, so much so that it almost bothers me, as if I know it but can't remember what it's from. Pretty sure that I've never seen the movie.