Press Releases

National Jazz Archive-Summer Jazz Event

Saturday 10th July 2010

Special guest - JOHN ALTMAN

John Digby and John

The large audience at Loughton Methodist Church was treated to three hours of great entertainment when the celebrated film/tv composer /arranger and saxophonist John Altman was the special guest.

The afternoon started with Digby Fairweather interviewing John about his fantastic career and there were great stories not only about John but also his Uncle Sid Phillips the famous band leader who at only age 17 was playing in Italy in a band called The Melodians where he met and became friendly with the great composer Puccini!!

Much later John met the great Artie Shaw who told him that the Ambrose Band was the apex of dance band music and for whom Sid Phillips was a leading arranger.

John’s “stage debut” came at age three when his mother took him to the London Palladium where her brother Woolf was the conductor of the great resident orchestra “The Skyrockets” and they stood at the side of the stage and when her grip on his hand released for a moment he saw his Uncle on stage and raced on whilst Judy Garland was performing!!! She then put him on her lap and sang “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” to him!!!

He started composing at age seven and whilst he never learned to read music he “writes in his head” having this exceptional ability to “take down” music.

He loved Jazz from age five and early influences included Paul Whiteman with his version of “Darktown Strutters Ball “with Jack Teagarden and Count Basie’s “Texas Shuffle.”

John has been playing since1962 and his first band was a local school band and played Muddy Waters music- Muddy later performed at John’s 21st birthday party!!

At age 14 he was in the famous Dobell’s record shop and spotted the great Ben Webster browsing and Ben asked the assistants “where can I buy washing powder.” They didn’t know but John came to the rescue and told Ben about the Chinese shop nearby and Ben then asked John to take him there. When there Ben surprised by the choice asked John to recommend a brand and he said try Tide.

The following week John and two school friends went to the Jazz club where Ben was playing and as Ben walked through the audience to the stage he spotted John and went over, patted him on the back and shouted “Great Choice!!” John was able to make considerable capital out of this with his friends.

He played in pop bands in 1965/6 and also got to play with Philly Jo Jones the great drummer at a friends house.

His early influences were perhaps surprisingly not The Beatles but included The Rolling Stones and The Yardbirds because of their Blues connections and he made his first record in 1970 with Fleetwood Mac.

Subsequently he had a lucky break when he became the arranger for Hot Chocolate which changed his career.

He then got a call from and worked with Van Morrison and then hooked up with the Monty Python team on The Life of Brian film and has a co-writer credit with Eric Idle for “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” and he had a lot of time for George Harrison who worked on this and The Rutles with him.

At the 40th anniversary concert of the “Pythons” he sang the “Lumberjack Song” with Michael Palin!!

He then mainly wrote for artists such as Rod Stewart on the hit “Downtown Trail” and George Michael and legendary divas who he got on well with such as Diana Ross and Tina Turner and then worked as an arranger doing TV shows such as Top of the Pops ,Morecambe and Wise and The Two Ronnies.

John has produced several number one hits including “Walking in the Air” by Aled Jones and “That Old Devil Called Love” by Alison Moyet. For the latter they used a studio they had never been to before and although the piano had supposedly been tuned the pianist Mick Pyne found it be completely out of tune and they were worried about how they would be able to continue .Alison Moyet came to the rescue and took a piano tuning kit from her case and resolved the problem!!! Apparently she had received piano tuning training|!!

So this must be a rare example of a number one hit not only being sung by the artist but the piano also being tuned by her!!!

Since 1977 he has been responsible for over 4,000 commercials including “Sheila’s Wheels”

In more recent years in Los Angeles he was a special guest playing with the original Comets who backed Bill Haley and he was very impressed by them and they sounded like a western swing band.

His first full film credit was for the award winning “Hear My Song” which had a world wide impact“ ( he played the bandleader in the film) and this led to him going to Los Angeles. His many subsequent films include “Little Voice” where he helped coach Jane Horrocks ; “Shall we Dance;” the water chase sequence for the Bond movie “Golden Eye” and the onboard ship music for the blockbuster “Titanic.”

He has worked regularly in America and has his own big band there as well using such great musicians as Jack Sheldon and Plas Johnson playing gigs here as well playing many gigs over the years in the Essex area where he still resides.

The interview then concluded with a great ovation for John and whilst a lot of ground was covered the whole three hours could have been spent on the interview alone but then we would not have had the nearly ninety minutes of joyous live music that followed.

John sparkled on both baritone and curved soprano saxes and was in great company with Digby on Trumpet and a wonderful rhythm section of Bobby Worth (drums), Len Skeat (double bass) and Ted Beament (piano). Among the songs played were “Sultry Serenade”; “I’m Getting Sentimental Over You”; “Cheek to Cheek” ; “Sunday Kind of Love” ;”There’s no you”; “How about you” ; a terrific feature for John “Strange Fascination” a composition he wrote for the 1991 film “The Roman Spring of Mrs.Stone” starring Helen Mirren and Anne Bancroft and the session concluded with a rousing version of “I Got Rhythm.”

Another great ovation followed to conclude a magnificent afternoon’s entertainment.

David Nathan

Photos courtesy of John Root.

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