He’s having such a good time, why should he? I think maybe that’s his forte, is the fact that he doesn’t want to stop learning.” “It’s about 9:30, 10 o’clock - he’s probably sitting at the piano, working on something. “I know what John’s doing right now,” said Don Williams, looking at his watch. Williams may have become a world-famous, Oscar-gilded composer, not to mention a lauded concert composer and conductor, since those early days when his friends called him Curley (because of his curly red hair). (“I tried, and it all came out sounding like a harmony exercise,” said Jerry Williams.) All three played on Williams’ scores as his star rapidly ascended, and the brothers still do - most recently on “The Post.” Williams’ brothers both became session percussionists like their father - and like their father, neither of them composes. It was only a matter of time before he started scoring his own shows - and we all know how that turned out. He quickly became a first-call studio pianist, and played on scores for Henry Mancini (those are his fingers on the “Peter Gunn” theme) and Leonard Bernstein (“West Side Story”). Out of the service, after studying at Juilliard he came back to Hollywood and cut some jazz albums (“World on a String,” “The John Towner Touch”). He conducted and arranged for military bands, and while he was stationed in Newfoundland, at age 22, he scored a short travelogue film (“You Are Welcome”) - and the scoring hook was in. He went to UCLA after graduating in 1950, but was soon drafted into the Air Force. That was his night out.”Īnd, foreshadowing his future, he would hang out at the scoring stages where his dad played on sessions for composers like Bernard Herrmann, including the score for “Vertigo.” (“Bernard loved the way he played timpani,” said Don Williams.) He would take me along to hear Oscar Peterson at Sardi’s or something. If he was going to go out - and we did - we would go to hear a group. “His recreation, his fun and everything else, was always music. “As far as going to the beach or bowling or something.
Barbara Ruick died from a brain hemorrhage in 1974.) The “Carousel” actress, daughter of actors Mel Ruick and Lurene Tuttle, would marry Williams in 1956. “Yeah - girls,” said Botkin, who was good friends with their classmate Barbara Ruick. often tickling the ivories.įor teenage Johnny - he went by “Johnny Williams” until 1968 - music was everything. (Bing Crosby’s guitarist) and pianist Claude Thornhill, and they would drop by to talk music and make music, with Johnny Jr. All of Johnny Sr.’s friends were musicians, people like film composer George Duning (“From Here to Eternity”), Perry Botkin Sr. The Williams house was a constant jam session. “We were pretty rough at first,” 16-year-old Williams told Time, “everybody fighting for their own salad.” But they were good enough to leave sorority dances behind and play legit clubs, and it wasn’t long before Williams was playing solo at the Cocoanut Grove. Williams was also arranging jazz numbers for his high school quintet, which included the sons of other famous Hollywood hepcats - including Don Ingle, Gene Estes and Perry Botkin Jr., who all went on to careers in music.
Can’t be away from his piano - doesn’t want to be away from the piano. ‘Hey, John, dinner’s ready!’ ‘OK, I’ll be there in a minute.’ Fifteen minutes later, my mom would send me back out there. “My mother would send me out there: ‘Tell John dinner’s ready.’ I’d go out. “He was at the piano all day,” said the composer’s other brother, Don Williams, 16 years his junior. Williams, who started taking lessons at 7, slept near his piano in the garage apartment of his folks’ home on Vantage Avenue in North Hollywood, and he practiced religiously (a discipline he still maintains at age 86). “Dad would bring John along, and everybody would go, ‘Hey, wait a minute - who’s the new piano player?’ So he was introduced and recognized very early on, because he was, and is, a great piano player.” “They had what they called a ‘kicks band’ at Columbia Pictures, where the guys would get together and play each others’ charts,” said Williams’ younger brother, Jerry Williams, 81. was only 16, but already a talented jazz pianist.
0 kommentar(er)
