21st April – Trevor Jones

South African born Trevor Jones is a film and TV composer extraordinaire. He had decided at the tender age of five years that he was going to be a film music composer, and remarkably achieved his aim with considerable success. He studied as an undergraduate at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and then undertook a Masters’ degree in Film and Media Music at the University of York. He then went on to the National Film and Television School in Buckinghamshire to further his knowledge of film making.

Jones’ first lucky break came when the director of low-budget movie “Excalibur” hired him to compose some original music for the film. Jones was unknown, and therefore cheap. Jim Henson (famed for his Muppets creations) hired him on the basis of his Excalibur score, to write an experimental soundtrack to his latest film, The Dark Crystal, in 1982. Jones used several non-standard instruments, such as a crumhorn and a double flageolet, in this score.

Jones has teamed up with many well-known names in his career – from David Bowie in “Labyrinth” to guitarist John Williams in “Dominick and Eugene”. In 1996 he wrote the soundtrack to the film “Loch Ness”, and today is the anniversary of the day the first “photograph” of the monster was published. To date, Jones has scored soundtracks for well over thirty movies, including “Last of the Mohicans”, “Notting Hill”, “Brassed Off”  and “Arachnophobia”.

Here is part of Jones’ “Loch Ness” soundtrack:

Listen to more works by Jones – click the box!