James Newton Howard was born in Los Angeles in 1951. Like so many other musicians, he grew up in a musical family – with his grandmother as the concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. He began taking piano lessons at a young age and expanded his musical background from classical music to rock and roll.
For college, he first went to University of Southern
California with a major in piano performance before transferring to the Music
Academy of the West. One of his teachers was Marty Paich, who became one
of Howard’s conductors in his early film works. In 1972, when the band
Mama Lion needed a keyboardist, Howard stepped in – then known as Jim
Howard. With an emphasis on synthesizer technology, Howard came out with
his first solo album in 1974, with a real mix of jazz and classical.
Howard also became a session musician for the likes of Olivia
Newton-John and Ringo Starr. His big break came in 1975 when he joined
the touring company with Elton John, playing backup keyboards and eventually
doing orchestral arrangements. He continued playing keyboards and
programming synthesizers on various artists’ albums in the late 1970s like
Carly Simon, Melissa Manchester, Harry Nilsson, Randy Newman and Diana
Ross. He toured again with Elton John in 1980 and 1986. In 1982
Howard joined up with the band Toto, both in studio and on tour. (Side
note, the lead David Paich is the son of teacher Marty Paich. Also,
future Toto band member Joseph Williams is composer John Williams’ son.)
Howard’s first foray into the film world was as Song Producer
and Arranger on the score to Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), music by Jerry
Goldsmith. He released another solo album in 1985, titled James Newton
Howard and Friends. His first film score came as Head Office (1985) and
did several films like Wildcats (1985), Promised Land (1987) before composing
the box office hit Major League (1988). In 1989 he was nominated for an
Emmy for the main title music of the series Men.
1990 marked a turning point in his film career, scoring both
Flatliners (1990) and the megahit Pretty Woman (1990). Taking on a wide
variety of styles, he scored movies like King Ralph (1991), Dying Young (1991), and My Girl (1991). His score to Grand Canyon (1991) started the
collaboration with director Lawrence Kasdan. Going full circle, Howard
reunited with Barbra Streisand (for whom he accompanied over the years) on her
film, The Prince of Tides (1991). One of the most beautiful of his
scores, it was nominated for the Academy Award and cemented James Newton Howard
as a top film composer.
More variety in his scores continued in the 1990s with films
like Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), Falling Down (1993), and the political comedy
Dave (1993). His great score to The Fugitive (1993) was nominated for an
Oscar. Another highlight came with 1994’s Wyatt Earp. That same
year, he wrote the theme song to the TV series E.R. (Emmy nominated) and the
song “Look What Love Has Done” from Junior was nominated for the Oscar’s Best
Song category.
Adventuring into new genres, he composed the music to Outbreak
(1995), French Kiss (1995) again with director Kasdan, and the action score to
Waterworld (1995). In 1996, he received another Best Song Oscar
nomination for “For the First Time” from One Fine Day. Howard’s scores
have appeared in so many popular films from Space Jam (1996) to Romy and
Michele’s High School Reunion (1997). His score for My Best Friend’s
Wedding (1997) was nominated for a Best Score Oscar. He followed that up
with very diverse films like The Devil’s Advocate (1997) and The Postman
(1997).
His career turned a new corner with his first collaboration with
director M. Night Shyamalan – The Sixth Sense (1999). The dramatic score
for the film continues to be one of Howard’s best. Since then, he’s been
involved in incredibly high profile projects, often differing in style and
versatility.
Dinosaur (2000) began Howard’s connection with Disney which
would amount to three films. Also in 2000 was his next collaboration with
Shyamalan – Unbreakable (2000). Continuing at an incredible pace, he
would go on to score films like Disney’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001), the
next Shyamalan film, Grammy nominated Signs (2002), Disney flick Treasure
Planet (2002), another Kasdan film Dreamcatcher (2003), Peter Pan (2003), the
Western action film Hidalgo (2004) and the next Shyamalan thriller, The Village
(2004). The haunting score is supplemented by Hilary Hahn’s violin solos
– and it’s no surprise the score was nominated for an Academy Award.
If he hadn't been popular enough, Howard’s name became more
well-known after collaborating with fellow composer Hans Zimmer for Christopher
Nolan’s Batman Begins (2005). That same year, as Howard Shore’s score for
King Kong (2005) was dropped, Howard came to the rescue with less than two
months to go. The ‘Kong’ score was ultimately nominated for a Golden
Globe. In 2006 Howard composed two varied scores – the darkly rich Lady
in the Water (2006) with Shyamalan and Blood Diamond (2006) with director
Edward Zwick.
2007 saw a bevy of new scores including Celtic-influenced The
Water Horse (2007), Charlie Wilson’s War (2007), I Am Legend (2007) and the
subdued Michael Clayton (2007) – the latter nominated for the Best Score
Oscar. 2008 was another topnotch year. Howard rejoined Hans Zimmer
for the sequel, The Dark Knight (2008), reteamed with M. Night Shyamalan for
The Happening (2008) and also re-teamed with Edward Zwick for WWII film Defiance (2008).
The evocative score (with violin solos by Joshua Bell) was nominated for the
Best Score Oscar. He only composed a couple of scores in 2009, one being
Duplicity with director Tony Gilroy, who previously directed Michael Clayton.
His collaboration hit a new peak with the first-rate score to
the Shyamalan film The Last Airbender (2010). Interestingly as
Shyamalan’s films get worse critically, the Howard scores get better.
Howard continued variety is yet again shown in scores like Water for Elephants
(2011) and the roots of a franchise in The Hunger Games (2012). His most recent scores include Snow White and
the Huntsman (2012) and The Bourne Legacy for director Tony Gilroy.
With no sign of slowing down, Howard continues to pump out a bunch
of scores a year, with generally mixed results.
Personally, some of his output recently isn’t as strong as in the past,
but there are always moments in his scores that are great. His choices are interesting yet for most
moviegoers his style is not apparent. James
Newton Howard is a great chameleon when he wants to be, going from a score like
The Fugitive to Runaway Bride, Peter Pan to The Village.
Throughout his entire career he has surrounded himself with
great collaborators – recent directors that trust his work (M. Night Shyamalan
at the top, Lawrence Kasdan, Tony Gilroy and recently Francis Lawrence). He also has had strong orchestrators and
conductors throughout (Brad Dechter since 1986, Jon Kull since 2000 and his
main conductor Pete Anthony since 1999).
There aren’t as many composers that can jump from project to project like Howard does. He can do stinkers (Waterworld, The Happening, Green Lantern) and still puts out his best – and often the scores are the best parts of those films. He certainly elevates any movie he works on, and there’s still more to see.
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