BE CAREFUL!! There are two John Williamses IIRC--one a jazz pianist and one a movie composer. Likewise with John Eaton-one jazz pianist, one composer. Jim "no relation to either" Williams
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] on behalf of John Howell
Sent: Mon 03-Jan-05 15:56
To: [email protected]
Cc:
Subject: Re: [Finale] RE: MIDI transcriptionism
At 1:14 PM -0500 1/3/05, Andrew Stiller wrote:
Drafted in 1952, Williams was assigned to the United
States Air Force, and as a part of his tour of duty he conducted and arranged
music for service bands. After his discharge in 1954, he spent a year at the
Julliard School of Music as a piano student of Rosina Lhevinne.
I had no idea he was so old! I thought he was of our
generation--largely because I never heard of him prior to _Star Wars_.
Well, it seems from the bios posted to the list that we cover a good
many generations.
What I find interesting in the above bio is how much things changed in
just a few years. My draft number came up in 1957, and I spent 4 years in the
USAF Band. There were no 2-year enlistments by that time; you had to go into
the army for 2 years or opt to enlist in the navy or air force for 4 (both with
reserve commitments stretching the total to 8 years; it was called Universal
Military Training). And I wonder about the "conducting" credit. By 1957, at
least, service bands were conducted only by officers (Glen Miller was either a
captain or a major in the Army Air Corps), and not enlisted men. (Well, I can
think of one exception. The Airmen of Note was conducted by a seargent, so the
associated jazz bands may have been handled differently.) Arranging I can
certainly believe. Sam Nestico was in the USAF band when I was, and I believe
had transferred from the Marine Band when his previous enlistment was up, so he
is probably of an age with JW.
We just graduated a talented young man in music education. He was in
our Corps of Cadets and ROTC, and was commissioned an Air Force 2nd Liutenant
when he graduated, but he was caught in a Catch 22. He couldn't PLAY in a
service band because he was an officer, but he couldn't CONDUCT a service band
because he didn't have a masters degree in music!
Anyway, it's nice to learn that JW was just a regular guy and did the
same things a lot of us did before he became a celebrity.
John
--
John & Susie Howell
Virginia Tech Department of Music
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
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