Jonathan Elias | |
|---|---|
 Elias in 2011 | |
| Born | 1956 (age 67–68) New York City, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Composer, record producer |
| Years active | 1976–present |
| Spouse(s) | Patty Kelly (model, married/divorced) |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | eliasarts |
Jonathan Elias (born 1956) is an American composer best known for his film soundtracks.
Elias was born in New York City in 1956. He is of Jewish-Hungarian background. [1] Elias started playing piano at the age of six, and was composing his own music by twelve, inspired in part by Broadway musicals. He liked rock music, but also admired Béla Bartók, Igor Stravinsky, and Sergei Rachmaninoff. [2]
He attended the Eastman School of Music with aspirations of becoming a classical composer and conductor, and then Bennington College in Vermont in 1976. While still in school, he cut his teeth doing the music for movie trailers, most notably Alien , and later scored the trailers for Blade Runner , Gandhi , and Back to the Future . Elias went on to work on numerous movie soundtracks, starting with Children of the Corn and including Tuff Turf , Parents , Chaplin , and more. [3]
He and his brother, Scott Elias, founded the music and advertising firm Elias Music in 1981. [4] [1]
He met John Barry (of James Bond soundtrack fame) in the early 1980s, and began working with him on several movie soundtracks, including Jagged Edge and A View to a Kill . It was during the A View to a Kill sessions in 1985 that Elias met and became friends with the members of pop group Duran Duran (they performed the title song for the movie).
While working on the soundtrack to the film 9½ Weeks the year after that, Elias co-wrote the single "I Do What I Do" with Duran Duran's bassist John Taylor, who performed the vocals — his first solo venture. The song went to #42 on the UK Singles Chart, and to #23 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US. Elias and Taylor also co-wrote and co-produced the melancholy piano instrumental "Jazz", released on the b-side of the single. Elias and Taylor went on to co-write an album's worth of additional unreleased material together that year, which would eventually be collected on Taylor's 1999 album Résumé. [5]
Elias produced an album for Grace Jones and co-produced (with Daniel Abraham) Duran Duran's 1988 album Big Thing . He also returned to play Moog synthesizer on Duran Duran's 1995 album Thank You .
In 1989, Elias recruited the entire Duran Duran lineup for his first solo album, called Requiem for the Americas. The most recognizable of Duran Duran's contributions to the album was vocalist Simon Le Bon's solo track "Follow In My Footsteps", which also featured The Bangles vocalist Susanna Hoffs on backup vocals. John Taylor played bass on "The Chant Movement", with other Duran members adding their instrumental touches on various tracks. Other vocalists on the album included Grace Jones, Toni Childs, Michael Bolton, Patti Scialfa, and Jon Anderson.
Elias then worked with the band Yes on their 1991 album Union . Many band members were not speaking to each other, and the disjointed working atmosphere and the involvement of outside musicians (which allowed the piece to be finished at all) led to an uneven album which was generally unpopular with critics and fans. Elias was often blamed for the album's failure. [6]
In 1992, Elias moved to California, and shifted his focus from movies and rock music to advertising. His firm Elias Arts has won an Emmy Award for the "Move" theme for Nike Inc., and has garnered dozens of Clio Awards and other advertising trophies for work for top-line corporations such as Ford, GM, Nissan, Audi, Infiniti, Mercedes, AT&T, NASDAQ, IBM, Apple, Sony, Levi's, and Adidas.
In 1992–1993, he composed the fanfare for the 1993 Columbia Pictures logo debuting with the 1993 film Last Action Hero, and is still used till this day.
Elias released another solo project, The Prayer Cycle , in 1999. This is a nine-part contemporary choral symphony in twelve languages (including Hebrew, Latin, Swahili and Urdu). Vocalists on this album include Alanis Morissette, Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, Ofra Haza, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Salif Keita, and Yungchen Lhamo of Tibet.
In 2004, he released American River, a work combining piano and string quartet compositions with spoken word performances by Emmylou Harris, Kris Kristofferson, Marty Stuart, Rosanne Cash and Johnny Cash (in one of his last recorded works). American River was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best New Age Album in that year. [3]
He also collaborated with Robert Downey, Jr. on his 2004 solo album The Futurist and on the soundtrack for Downey's film The Singing Detective . As of 2008 [update] , his most recent movie work has been on A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006) and Pathfinder (2007), with the help of co-composers Jimmy Haun, David Wittman, Nathaniel Morgan and Tim Davies.
His most recent album is Prayer Cycle 2: Path to Zero, released in 2011. [7] Guest vocalists this time include Sting, Salif Keita, Rahat Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Jonathan Davis of Korn, [2] Jon Anderson, [8] Trudie Styler, Angelique Kidjo, Richard Bona, Yungchen Lhamo, Dadawa, Robert Downey, Jr., Sinéad O'Connor, Serj Tankian, Alex Ebert and, via an archival recording, Jim Morrison.
Elias married Patty Kelly, a model from Deer Park, Long Island who was working in London at age 20 when she became the lead in the iconic MTV music video "Addicted to Love" by Robert Palmer. The couple had two children, Lilli and Jack Elias (born in ~1996 and ~2001 respectively) and later divorced. In a 2013 interview, Patty explained that the two were not aware of their MTV connection, with him having done the signature guitar riff for the channel idents and her performing in this music video, until "maybe on our second or third date". [9]
Jamshied Sharifi is an American composer, conductor, musician, and record producer. Born in Topeka, Kansas to an Iranian father and an American mother, Sharifi was exposed to music at an early age, learning Jazz and Middle Eastern music through his father and European classical and church music through his mother. He began to study classical piano at age five and quickly developed a thirst for musical instruction and a desire to improvise. At age nine he began studying guitar and drums, and at age ten added flute.
Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, also known by his initials NFAK, was a Pakistani singer, songwriter, and music director. He was primarily a singer of qawwali, a form of Sufi devotional music. Often referred to as the "Shahenshah-e-Qawwali", he is considered by The New York Times as the greatest qawwali singer of his generation and as the fourth greatest singer of all time by LA Weekly in 2016. He was known for his vocal abilities and could perform at a high level of intensity for several hours. Khan is widely credited with introducing Qawwali music to international audiences. He was also a master of Hindustani classical music.
Nigel John Taylor is a British musician who is best known as the bass guitarist for new wave band Duran Duran, of which he was a founding member. Duran Duran was one of the most popular bands in the world during the 1980s due in part to their music videos which played in heavy rotation in the early days of MTV. Taylor played with Duran Duran from its founding in 1978 until 1997, when he left to pursue a solo recording and film career. He recorded a dozen solo releases through his private record label B5 Records over the next four years, had a lead role in the movie Sugar Town, and made appearances in a half dozen other film projects. He rejoined Duran Duran for a reunion of the original five members in 2001 and has remained with the group since.
Nick Rhodes is an English keyboardist and producer, best known as a founding member and the keyboardist of the band Duran Duran.
Simon John Charles Le Bon is a British singer. He is best known as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the new wave band Duran Duran and its offshoot Arcadia. Le Bon has received three Ivor Novello Awards from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, including the award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music. He also received an MBE from King Charles III in 2024.
Terry John Bozzio is an American drummer best known for his work with Missing Persons, U.K., and Frank Zappa. He has been featured on nine solo or collaborative albums, 26 albums with Zappa and seven albums with Missing Persons. Bozzio has been a prolific sideman, playing on numerous releases by other artists since the mid-1970s. He was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1997.
Yungchen Lhamo is a Tibetan singer-songwriter living in the United States. She won the ARIA Award for Best World Music Album in 1995 and was then signed by Peter Gabriel's Real World record label.
Andrew James Taylor is an English guitarist, best known as a former member of Duran Duran and the Power Station. He has also recorded and performed as a solo artist, and served as a guitarist, songwriter, and record producer for the likes of Robert Palmer, Rod Stewart, the Almighty, Thunder, Love and Money, Mark Shaw, Then Jerico, C. C. Catch, Paul Rodgers, Belinda Carlisle, and Gun.
Real World Records is a British record label specializing in world music. It was founded in 1989 by English musician Peter Gabriel and original members of WOMAD. A majority of the works released on Real World Records feature music recorded at Real World Studios, in Box, Wiltshire, England.
Vincent Louis DiCola is an American composer, keyboardist and arranger. He has composed scores for films such as Staying Alive, Rocky IV, and The Transformers: The Movie. DiCola also pioneered the use of sequencers on his soundtrack recording for Rocky IV, one of the first to exploit the Fairlight CMI and Synclavier II's computer's sequencing capabilities.
Gerry Laffy is a British singer and guitarist who has played in the bands Girl, The London Cowboys, Sheer Greed, John Taylor, and Ultravox among others. Girl are still cited as an influence by many major artists twenty years later, even though they disbanded after only three years, allegedly due to their record company and mismanagement. In total Gerry Laffy has released 30 albums; he has played in venues as diverse as Wembley Arena, Taipei Hard Rock Cafe, the Reading Festival.
"A View to a Kill" is a song by the English pop rock band Duran Duran, released on 7 May 1985. Written and recorded as the theme for the James Bond film of the same name, it became one of the band's biggest hits. It is the only James Bond theme song to have reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100; it also made it to number two for three weeks on the UK Singles Chart while stuck behind Paul Hardcastle's "19". The song was the last track recorded by the most famous five-member lineup of Duran Duran until their reunion in 2001 and was also performed by the band at Live Aid in Philadelphia, their final performance together before their first split.
Skúli Sverrisson is an Icelandic composer and bass guitarist.
The Prayer Cycle is a choral/orchestral album by American film and television composer Jonathan Elias. The album was released by Sony Classical Records in the United States on March 23, 1999.
Bernard Fowler is an American musician. He is known for a long association with The Rolling Stones, providing backing vocals since 1989 and on their studio recordings and live tours. Fowler has been a featured guest vocalist on the majority of solo albums released by the members of that band. He has released two solo albums, and he has also been a regular featured singer on other musicians' recordings and tours. Fowler has toured and recorded with the bands Tackhead and Bad Dog and occasionally with Nicklebag and Little Axe.
R. Walt Vincent is a Los Angeles–based record producer, recording engineer, composer, and multi instrumentalist known for his work with indie rock icons Pete Yorn, Liz Phair and Tommy Keene.
Chris "Cecil" Campanaro is an American musician, songwriter, bassist, best known for his work with Grammy Award-nominated record "American River" featuring Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Stephen Perkins, along with several others. He is the bassist for several acts including TAXI, Terraplane Sun, The Matt Ellis Band, SOCCERMOM, Musket and has currently been playing with LP (singer).
Womadelaide '95 is a compilation album of music by artists from Womadelaide in 1995. The songs were recorded live by ABC Radio sound crews. Bruce Elder from the Sydney Morning Herald wrote that the album was "an extraordinary demonstration of how some of the greatest world music acts are reduced by studio technology, and how immensely better they sound when they perform live." The album was nominated the 1996 ARIA Award for Best World Music Album.
Coming Home is an album by the Tibetan musician Yungchen Lhamo, released in 1998 on Real World Records. It was her first album to be released in the United States; she had broken through to American audiences after playing the 1997 Lilith Fair and appearing on the soundtrack to Seven Years in Tibet. Lhamo supported the album by playing a 1998 benefit for Tibet House US as well as the WOMAD festival. Coming Home was banned in Tibet.
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