From: jjmckay@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Jim McKay)
Subject: Re: James Newton Howard (Grand Canyon soundtrack)
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Sat, 2 Jan 1993 19:20:06 GMT

kirsten@morgan.ucs.mun.ca (Kirsten Starcher) writes:

>Does anyone happen to know anything about this guy?  What else has he written?
>I have the soundtrack to _Grand Canyon_ and think it's fabulous, but the name
>doesn't ring a bell...

As a big Elton John fan, I can give you this perspective on James.  He
is very talented in his own right; I definitely would not consider him
a protege of EJ but a peer.  Yet it is in this context I am most familiar
with him.  "Je regret" I don't have more on him from another perspective.

James Newton Howard has been long affiliated with the L.A. rock and film
score scene as both a favorite film scorer as well as keyboard wizard.  He
has been on eof my favorites for a long time, although he has a low key 
profile as a celeb.  In addition to the album from the early '80s another
respondent has mentioned, there is an album from 1974 titled,
appropriatly enough, "James Newton Howard".  I've tried for years to get my
hands on this or any JNH album to no avail.  

James grew up in L.A. and attended USC where he studied classical music. 
This technical wizard is rumorred to have had his first job as a telephone 
operator.  James first came to my attention on Melissa Manchester's 
"Midnight Blue", a big hit in 1975 for which James arranged and 
played keyboards.  After being in Melissa's backup band, he gained 
prominence as Elton John's first regular keyboardist.  Elton wanted 
to spend less time to doing all the keyboard pieces on albums and 
on stage.  So James became the backup keyboardist in the new 
Elton John band.  That tells you how good he is.  That's James' mellotron
solo on EJ's "Island Girl".  Subsequently, James gained attention
for his light string arrangement on the 1976 blockbuster duet
"Don't Go Breaking My Heart" with Elton John and Kiki Dee and arranged
and played keyboards on Elton's "Blue Moves" album including the 
arrangement of "Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word".  

While Elton disolved his band soon after, he continued to collaborate with
Elton and has done so as recently as 1990.  After "Blue Moves", James
branched out even more.  He worked on Kiki Dee's 1977 & 1978 albums;  
arranged "Boats Against The Current" for Olivia Newton John; and in 1977
became one fourth of the band China which also included two 
other former EJ band members.  China features some facinating JNH keyboardwork
(but no arrangements) and is very much a precursor to the 80s Euro/techno-pop
sound and in some ways sounds a little like Toto although their vocaliist
lacks polish.  There is one album I am aware of (and own) self-titled "China".
James has played with many other folks including Carly Simon, Art Garfunkel,
Leo Sayer, Diana Ross, and Barbara Streisand whom he has been recently 
romatically linked to.  Of course James has been a close freind of the
members of Toto and served as a pallbearer at Jeff Pacarro's funeral
last summer.  

James appears as a keybaordist and/or arranger on many other EJ albums
including  "21 at 33", "The Fox", "Too Low For Zero", "Ice On Fire", 
"Leather Jackets", "Reg Strikes Back" and Elton's 1990 box set.  James
is one of the few folks that Elton has written music with including 
"Fanfare", a nifty instrumental.  James was also key to the success of
Elton's "Live in Austrailia with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra".  
James did many of the arrangements as well as conducted.  This would
be a good sample album of James' collaboration with Elton.  James' most 
recent hit with Elton was the 1990/1 hit "You Gotta Love Someone" which 
he arranged.

James has written many many film scores and is very popular with many 
movie actors and directors.  One recent movie that comes to mind is
one that starred Juila Roberts in which one of the chief characters was
terminally ill.  He also did the score to the recent Barbara Streisand/
Nick Nolte movie, "Prince of Tides". 

James is a great talent.  If anyone knows how I could get more info or 
buy an album of his, let me know.
Newsgroups: rec.music.misc