Favourite piano performances by John Williams himself?

[Thor 7,465]

I looked through 6 pages of previous threads that had the word 'piano' in the headline, but could find none about this subject, in particular. So I hope it hasn't been done before.

 

I thought it would be fun to share some of our favourites of Williams' own piano performances -- whether in film, on albums or any other circumstance. That is, occasions where he plays piano himself.

 

Feel free to share Youtube videos, but if you share a lot at the same time, PLEASE PUT THEM IN SPOILER TAGS. Otherwise, the page loads forever. Thank you! But even better: The topic will go on longer if we just share one at a time, with a sentence or two as to why you've picked it.

 

I have a huge catalogue of personal favourites myself, but to start off easy and to not hog this entire topic myself right off the bat, I just want to share this little track from Mancini's COMBO! (1961) album, which features Williams goofing around on a harpshicord, in typical 60s baroque jazz style. Love it!

 

 

[Datameister 2,037]

Great idea for a thread, Thor. I'll be following this one closely. My first contribution is the Maestro and Yo-Yo Ma playing together on Jay Leno.

 

https://youtu.be/2sjiJFBhb6U

[GerateWohl 4,335]

I couldn't find a YouTube Video in this, but Lection Night/The Boys in the Prowl from Jerry Goldsmith's Studs Lonigan is my favourite performance by John Williams. 

 

 

But I must confess, that I don't know very many.

[Jay 37,287]

According to this Intrada post, which I assume is simply coming from the booklet of the new release (I don't have it yet), John Williams played piano on Face of a Fugitive, a 1959 Jerry Goldsmith score

[SteveMc 2,674]

This performance comes to mind

 

[Sandor 796]

The Theme from Schindler’s List (Reprise) on the soundtrack album.

[aviazn 273]

I adore this little rendition of The Mission he did for Brian Williams. (Can't find it in YouTube, so can't embed it.)

 

And this performance of As Time Goes By where he played with Audra McDonald at Tanglewood in 2013. For JW, it may only be an accompaniment, but the two of them together is magical. I'm glad I was there that night.

Spoiler

 

Clearly, a recording exists of the whole thing, and I'd love to know where. There's this fan cam version but the sound quality is pretty bad:

Spoiler

 

 

[Miguel Andrade 1,260]

Spoiler

 

 

Not a fan of Groban, but that is one fine accompanist

[Yavar Moradi 2,589]

On 3/29/2021 at 10:50 AM, Jay said:

According to this Intrada post, which I assume is simply coming from the booklet of the new release (I don't have it yet), John Williams played piano on Face of a Fugitive, a 1959 Jerry Goldsmith score

 

As with Goldsmith's previous feature score City of Fear which Williams also played piano on, the film was released in 1959 but the score was written and recorded in 1958. This was Williams's second out of three known times he worked on a Goldsmith score.

 

Yavar

[Thor 7,465]

Today's piano selection should be fairly familiar to all of you - Williams playing piano on his own score to IMAGES. In the opening cue ("In Search of Unicorns"), there's so much happening. Williams' elegant piano waltz is the fairytale music as Cathryn writes/narrates from her book, but is suddenly counterpointed by sharp dissonance (performed by Stomu Yamashta) as Altman cuts to everyday objects - real life intruding on the comfort of her imagined world.

 

 

[Thor 7,465]

Today's selection is another "classic" -- John Williams performing a cue (his own composition, by the way) to a montage of silent film scenes, at an event in the early 2000s. Four-handed piano, accompanied by the Boston Pops pianist whose name escapes me. He would later perform the same piece with Leonard Slatkin. Of particular interest is the fact that a certain motif here also appears in the short film THE KATHERINE REED STORY from the mid 60s. It's either a classic tune from the era that I'm not aware of, or a tune that Williams repurposed for this film sequence:

 

 

[KingPin 201]

 

[Thor 7,465]

Today's piano selection. Williams playing an out-of-tune honkytonk piano in this cue from Waxman's HEMINGWAY'S ADVENTURES OF YOUNG MAN (1962):

 

 

[Thor 7,465]

Well, this topic died quickly.

 

Tonight's Williams performance is this gem from 1958 (1959?), i.e. Fred Katz' album FOLK SONGS FOR FAR OUT FOLK. Williams gets his workout with fast-paced finger runs. Also on display is Gene Estes' vibraphone playing, which kinda dominates throughout the album. Williams shines from about the 2-minute mark:

 

 

[Docteur Qui 1,544]

On 04/04/2021 at 3:15 AM, Thor said:

Today's selection is another "classic" -- John Williams performing a cue (his own composition, by the way) to a montage of silent film scenes, at an event in the early 2000s. Four-handed piano, accompanied by the Boston Pops pianist whose name escapes me. He would later perform the same piece with Leonard Slatkin. Of particular interest is the fact that a certain motif here also appears in the short film THE KATHERINE REED STORY from the mid 60s. It's either a classic tune from the era that I'm not aware of, or a tune that Williams repurposed for this film sequence:

 

 

@Thor thank you so much for sharing this, I’d never seen it before! What a fantastic video. So many subtle harmonic Williams-isms scattered in there, really placing his own stamp on the silent era. Loved it.

[Thor 7,465]

No prob, Docteur.

 

Since it's the weekend, I'll throw in another Williams gem here. This is from the 1956 album THE JOHNNY EVERGREENS by Russell Garcia and his orchestra. Garcia is still most famous for his score to the original THE TIME MACHINE (1960). He also occasionally posted on FSM untill he passed away in 2011, age 95. I did a thread on this particular album awhile back, because my theory was that it was the first professional "gig" Williams got after returning to LA in 1956. My hope was that it was recorded in, say, February or something of that year, but it appears it might be later (and hence not the first gig after all).

 

In any case, it's a pretty cool album featuring covers of Johnny Green compositions, with a stellar cast of musicians. Williams performs on two tracks, alongside trumpet master Don Fagerquist. "Body and Soul" is probably my favourite of the two -- Williams' elegant flourishes in the beginning have a kind of mournful quality.

 

 

[Datameister 2,037]

That new video must not be visible in my region, but I really dig the Katz track you posted, @Thor. Thanks for that!

[Thor 7,465]

38 minutes ago, Datameister said:

That new video must not be visible in my region, but I really dig the Katz track you posted, @Thor. Thanks for that!

 

Sorry about that. Here's an alternative video, hopefully that works:

 

 

[Datameister 2,037]

1 hour ago, Thor said:

 

Sorry about that. Here's an alternative video, hopefully that works:

 

 

 

Ooof that's glorious. Major thanks for sharing that!

[Thor 7,465]

Almost midnight here in Norway, but wanted to leave you with this weekend performance. It's the "title track" from Williams' solo album HERE'S WHAT I'M HERE FOR (aka WORLD ON A STRING) from 1957, featuring covers of Harold Arlen compositions. First and foremost, pay attention to Williams' elegant balance between soft and hard keyboard strokes throughout the piece.

 

 

[Bespin 8,479]

John Williams plays the piano?

 

Is there a discography that shows up all his recordings as a pianist?

[Bespin 8,479]

Creator of "unease" on the web since 1995.

- Bespin

[Thor 7,465]

Hey! It's weekend again. Time to share a little John Williams piano ditty. This is from the 1960 album BOTTOMS UP! by the George Roberts Sextet. Williams arranges and plays piano. There are plenty of great little piano solos throughout the album, but this is more about how he plays off of other musicians (the simultaneous chord hits in "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" are cute, for example). Perhaps this is my favourite track in terms of Williams playing on this particular album:

 

 

[Thor 7,465]

Hey, what's that? It's the weekend again?

 

Time for another John "Curly" Williams piano performance. This is a bit different. It's less about virtuoso playing and more about keeping time. Basically displaying Williams' left-hand bassline, as he gives momentum to the eternal classic "Brazil" (famously used in Terry Gilliam's film of the same name), much like he did on PETER GUNN. This is from the 1957 album THE JOHNNY WILLIAMS ORCHESTRA PLAYS SOUNDS FROM SCREEN SPECTACULARS, rereleased in 1958 as BIG HITS FROM COLUMBIA PICTURES, which had JW's print all over it as a proper "solo album" -- he arranged, he conducted, he played piano. The only thing missing was his own compositions, really. However, how Pickwick managed to transform the beautiful original artwork (from this and this) into this disastrous thing when they reissued it on CD in 1996 (and renamed it once again), is beyond me. Probably some contractual thing. I've been unable to find it on Youtube, and it's "scratched out" on Spotify, so here's an upload:

 

 

[din_zav 22]

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.

 

 

[WilliamsStarShip2282 308]

On 05/11/2021 at 2:34 PM, Thor said:

Well, this topic died quickly.

 

Tonight's Williams performance is this gem from 1958 (1959?), i.e. Fred Katz' album FOLK SONGS FOR FAR OUT FOLK. Williams gets his workout with fast-paced finger runs. Also on display is Gene Estes' vibraphone playing, which kinda dominates throughout the album. Williams shines from about the 2-minute mark:

 

 

 

did he play piano on this entire album?

 

[Bespin 8,479]

51 minutes ago, WilliamsStarShip2282 said:

 

did he play piano on this entire album?

 

 

No.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_Songs_for_Far_Out_Folk

 

[Jim Ware 526]

Goldsmith's Studs Lonigan has popped up in this thread already, but not this tremendous lengthy cue:

 

[Thor 7,465]

Jim Ware, that's another good selection from STUDS LONIGAN.

 

No, as has previously been noted, Williams did not play piano on all tracks on the Katz album. But he did play on the one I linked to earlier in the thread.

 

dinzav, the first couple of Youtube videos you linked to are actually Williams' own compositions; "Hello" and "Aunt Orsavella" are the two earliest Williams compositions ever to be recorded -- released on THE JOHN TOWNER TOUCH and MODERN JAZZ GALLERY, respectively. So both piano and composition.

 

The third is a neat performance. I had forgotten about that "Make Me Rainbows" video with Nancy Wilson.

 

The fourth is from Williams' 1957 PORGY AND BESS album, I think. He's credited as conductor and arranger, but not pianist, AFAIK. But he could be performing anyway, I don't know.

 

For my own selection this New Year's evening, I have chosen not one, but TWO tracks from the Marjorie Lee album REMEMBERING from 1957, on which Williams both arranges and plays piano. It contains both instrumentals and tracks with Lee singing. For the latter, you have possibility to hear Williams accompanying a vocalist, "restaurant piano" style -- i.e. staying discretely out of the way. My example is the last track "Maybe You'll Be There". For the instrumental, which displays his playing more, I have chosen "One Love". Happy New Year's, everyone!

 

 

 

[din_zav 22]

Dear Thor, I really appreciate your adittional remarks, somehow I did not know that JW did an entire album on Porgy and Bess before. 

 

By the way, do you know who played piano for this A I recording? I doubt that it was JW himself, it is absolutely brilliant though. 

 

Thank you again and happy New Year. 

 

 

[Thor 7,465]

Others will know this better than me, but isn't it Randy Kerber who performs piano on AI?

[Jay 37,287]

Randy Kerber, Ralph Grierson, and Chet Swiatkowski performed piano/keyboard/synth at the AI sessions

 

It's most likely that Kerber did the Reunion solos

[Disco Stu 15,495]

It certainly could have been Grierson though, right?  AI was the year before he injured his hand at the ET concert.

[Jay 37,287]

Could have been any of the three!

[Steve 589]

I just discoverd this little suite with Williams on Piano and Yo Yo on Cello. Was this recording also released physically?

 

 

[Jay 37,287]

The suite as a whole is an iTunes exclusive, but one of the 3 movements (Going To School) was released physically on Yo Yo Ma's 2007 compilation album "Appassionato"

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000KWZ7DS

 

These pieces REALLY should have been included in Sony's Conductor box, but of course they weren't.

[Thor 7,465]

And while we're at it, we can just as well include Williams and Yo Yo's performance at the Jay Leno show in 2005:

 

 

[Thor 7,465]

Hey, I haven't forgotten this topic. One doesn't automatically think that the abrasive modernity of Jerry Fielding and John Williams are a match made in heaven, but they did the 1957 album FIELDING'S FORMULA together. There aren't that many stretches of virtuoso piano playing in it; it's the brass that keeps the forefront, but Williams gets his workout done as part of the rhythm section. But again with the quick finger movements at around the minute-mark in the Rodgers/Hart tune "Isn't It Romantic", for example:

 

 

[Thor 7,465]

I asked myself some questions about latest Williams piano performances lately. Here's what I came up with, and feel free to correct!

 

What is the latest public piano performance by John Williams?

 

I believe Williams played a little bit of piano in one of those "covid videos" last year, i.e. in 2021.

 

What is the latest on-stage piano performance by John Williams?

 

I believe the answer is riffing the PETER GUNN bassline at a Mancini tribute concert in 2017.

 

What is the latest album recording piano performance by John Williams?

 

Has there been anything after the Keisuke Wakao album in 1999, on which he accompanied on SABRINA?

 

With that out of the way, it's time for another "piano performance of the day" clip. For those of you who wonder how Joseph Williams got to be the lead singer of Toto in the late 80s, it might have something to do with the fact that the Paichs and Williamses go back a long way. Marty Paich worked with John Williams on several occasions in the 50s and 60s, and their kids no doubt hung around. A classic album is TAKE ME ALONG from 1960, on which four pianos play -- Paich on one, Williams on another, Pete Jolly on the third and frequent JW collaborator Jimmy Rowles on the fourth. It's impossible to say what is Williams and what is the other three, but an intriguing concept nonetheless. Here's the overture:

 

 

By the way, I'm probably the only one, but everytime I see the cover, I keep thinking of Tangerine Dream's music for SORCERER.

 

 

[Jay 37,287]

Whatever video clip that is supposed to be is not available for me, or presumably anyone else in the USA

[Disco Stu 15,495]

I think it's this? which should work for Americans at least

 

 

[Thor 7,465]

Yes, that's right. You were quicker than me -- I've edited the post accordingly.

[Thor 7,465]

On 11/03/2022 at 5:28 PM, Thor said:

What is the latest album recording piano performance by John Williams?

 

Has there been anything after the Keisuke Wakao album in 1999, on which he accompanied on SABRINA?

 

I'll have to correct myself, since nobody else did. I had forgotten about the Audra McDonald recording of "I Had Myself A True Love" from 2009, which features Williams on piano. I can't stand McDonald's vocal performance in this case, so I'm not going to highlight the track here, in a "favourites" thread (click the link above if you're interested nonetheless), but I do believe THAT is the latest album recording with a Williams piano performance, no?

 

Let me instead move on to today's selection. It's from the 1960 album FIRST AFFAIR by The Four Freshmen -- a kind of blend between Disney choir, barbershop, jazz and Beach Boys. It's quite cute. In the first post of this thread, I played a cue from the Mancini album COMBO!, featuring Williams on harpshicord. And here's he at it again, this time playing less baroque and more using the instrument as a rhythm device (and a nice, tiny little solo at about 1:14). Kudos also to the kinda STAR WARS-sounding title of the song - "Long Ago (And Far Away)":

 

 

[Thor 7,465]

At this point, I'm just talking to myself in this thread, but that's OK.

 

Today's selection is a little different. No films, cocktail lounge or lighter fare. John Williams has done only one -- ONE! -- piano recording of "proper" classical music in his entire career, and that is a 1974 album on Orion that showcased Sergei Prokofiev's "Sonata in C for Cello and Piano" as well as David Ward-Steinman's "Duo for Cello and Piano". Edgard Lustgarten joined on cello. It was reissued on CD in 2007. I think it's a fascinating piece of history. While Williams has played classical music many times in his life (especially the year at Juilliard), few have been recorded for posterity. On this album, he showcases his virtuoso skills; one can only imagine a whole alternative career as concert pianist while listening to it.

 

I couldn't find anything on YouTube, but it's available on Spotify.

 

 

[Raiders of the SoundtrArk 2,429]

Here it is on youtube:

 

Although I'm not participating much on this thread it's always nice to discover those performances, so thanks for keeping this thread alive @Thor

[Thor 7,465]

Thanks, Force!

[Miguel Andrade 1,260]

On 11/03/2022 at 4:28 PM, Thor said:

Has there been anything after the Keisuke Wakao album in 1999, on which he accompanied on SABRINA?

 

Williams didn't play on the Sabrina track, but rather on The Days Between from Stepmom.

[Thor 7,465]

Yes, STEPMOM, sorry. It was wrong either way, as the McDonald recording came 10 years later.

[Thor 7,465]

Easter weekend!

 

Today's selection is from a Les Baxter album. And that's kinda interesting, since Baxter sued Williams over the E.T. theme in the 80s (I've forgotten the details, you can google them). But Williams performed piano on two of Baxter's exotica albums in 1959 -- AFRICAN JAZZ and JUNGLE JAZZ. I've been unable to find information on which tracks Williams performed. Maybe all of them, maybe just some. But I hope and think he performed on the last track of AFRICAN JAZZ, "Balinese Bongos", which is a delightful little ditty that makes him move around the entire scale:

 

 

[GerateWohl 4,335]

36 minutes ago, Thor said:

And that's kinda interesting, since Baxter sued Williams over the E.T. theme in the 80s (I've forgotten the details, you can google them).

I didn't know that.