Trevor Jones (composer)

From Freepedia

Trevor Alfred Charles Jones (born March 23, 1949 in Cape Town, South Africa) is a South African orchestral film score composer. Although not especially well known outside the film world he has composed for numerous films and his music has been critically acclaimed for both its depth and emotion.

Already at an age of 5 Jones decided to become a filmcomposer. In 1967 he attended the Royal Academy of Music in London with a scholarship and afterwards worked for five years for the BBC on reviews of radio and television music. In 1974 Jones attended the University of York from which he graduaded with a Master Degree in Film and Media Music. Also at the National Film and Television School Jones studied for three years on general filmmaking and film and sound techniques. During this time he already wrote the music to twenty-two student projects. In 1981 Jones wrote the score for the Academy award-winning short movie "The Dollar Bottom" and for the short "The Black Angel". One of his earliest successes for the big screen was the Jim Henson-movie The Dark Crystal, for which Jones used such uncommon instruments like a Flageolet and an Okema. After this he was hired for the movie Labyrinth, also by Jim Henson, and there worked together with pop-star David Bowie, who wrote the vocal tracks for this movie, including the hit "Underground".

Jones frequently employs large orchestras in his work, but his style ranges from Hollywood blockbusters (G.I. Jane) to early work with the Monty Python team. Jones is also a successful arranger of other composers' music, such as in Brassed Off and Return of the Jedi.