John Barham is an Englishclassical pianist, composer, arranger, producer and educator. He is best known for hisorchestration ofGeorge Harrison albums such asAll Things Must Pass (1970) and for his association with Indiansitar maestroRavi Shankar.
Barham trained at theRoyal College of Music and theSchool of Oriental and African Studies in London, before establishing himself during the mid 1960s as a composer of piano interpretations ofIndian classicalragas. He became a student of Shankar, for whose East–West collaborations withYehudi Menuhin and others he transcribed Indian melodies into Western musical annotation. Through Shankar, Barham began a long friendship with Harrison in 1966, then a member ofthe Beatles, which assisted Harrison's own education in Indian music as well as his promotion of the genre to Western audiences. Barham collaborated with Harrison on the latter'sWonderwall Music soundtrack album (1968), before providing the orchestral arrangements forAll Things Must Pass songs such as "Isn't It a Pity" and "My Sweet Lord", and for Harrison's 1973 albumLiving in the Material World.
Most often in the role of orchestral or choral arranger, Barham also contributed to albums such as the Beatles'Let It Be,John Lennon'sImagine andGary Wright'sFootprint in the early 1970s. His projects as a music producer during the same period included three albums byprogressive rock bandQuintessence, and he has worked on film or TV soundtracks for directorsOtto Preminger,Alejandro Jodorowsky andJonathan Miller. Other artists with whom Barham has worked includeElton John,André Previn,Phil Spector,Roger Daltrey,Yoko Ono andJackie Lomax.
Continuing his interest in Indian music, Barham released an album withyaAashish Khan in 1973,Jugalbandi, and contributed to Shankar's final collaboration with Harrison,Chants of India, in 1996. Among his educational positions, he has taught atTrinity College of Music, London, and in Ghana at theAchimota School.
Born in London in the 1940s, John Barham studied piano, trumpet and music composition at theRoyal College of Music.[1] He then attended London University'sSchool of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), where he developed an interest inIndian classical music. Among English classical musicians of the mid 1960s, Barham's piano compositions based on Indianragas were unprecedented and brought him to the attention of members of India's cultural community in London.[1] Some of his works were first performed and recorded for radio broadcast by British pianistJohn Bingham (Reflections and Piano Concerto).
Barham became a student of Indiansitarist and composerRavi Shankar,[2] whose international popularity by 1966 had grown to include Westernrock audiences.[3][4] In June that year, Barham attended theBath Music Festival in the west of England, where Shankar and American violinistYehudi Menuhin were due to perform an historic duet.[1] At Shankar's request, Barham transcribed the sitarist's adaptation ofRaga Tilang into Western musical annotation for Menuhin's benefit, after Shankar had been dissatisfied with German musicianPeter Feuchtwanger's attempt to adapt the same raga.[2] Later in 1966, on Menuhin and Shankar'sGrammy Award-winning albumWest Meets East,[5] Barham supplied liner notes,[6] explaining the various musical terms particular to Indian music.[7]
He served as musical annotator on several subsequent East–West collaborations by Shankar,[8] who described him as "a brilliant young pianist".[9] One such project was Shankar's score forAlice in Wonderland (1966),[10] aBBC TV film directed byJonathan Miller.[11][12]
During this period, Barham metGeorge Harrison ofthe Beatles through Shankar,[13] who had adopted the guitarist as his sitar student.[14] Harrison was fascinated by Barham's interpretations of ragas, and based his 1967 song "Blue Jay Way" on a piano piece that Barham had derived fromRaga Marwa.[15] In March 1967,[16] Barham attended the recording session for Harrison's Indian-styled composition "Within You, Without You", released on the Beatles' seminal albumSgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.[17] Barham later wrote the choral arrangements forPhil Spector's controversial production[18] of "The Long and Winding Road" and "Across the Universe",[19] issued on the band's final album,Let It Be (1970).[20]
Several commentators credit Harrison as the person most responsible for Indian music's surge in popularity in the West from 1966 onwards, via his work with the Beatles and his public endorsement of Shankar.[21][22][23] Among these, author Simon Leng has described Barham as both a "birth partner"[24] and the "closest confidant and fellow traveler" to Harrison during the latter's immersion in the genre.[25]
Barham played a key collaborative role on Harrison's soundtrack to theJoe Massot-directed filmWonderwall (1968).[10][26] In addition to participating in recording sessions held at London'sAbbey Road Studios in late 1967,[27] Barham transcribed Harrison's melodies into an annotation that the Beatle was then able to share with Indian musicians in Bombay, where part of the album was recorded in January 1968.[10] Released asWonderwall Music, and described by author Peter Lavezzoli as "a charming potpourri of Indian and Western sounds",[28] it features Barham on piano,harmonium andflugelhorn, and in the role of orchestral arranger.[27]
Following the Beatles' break-up in April 1970, Barham supplied the orchestral arrangements on Harrison's acclaimed triple albumAll Things Must Pass (1970).[29] The album was co-produced by Spector, whose "distant and authoritarian" style Barham says he found difficult to adapt to after the "intimate, friendly atmosphere" typical of Harrison sessions.[30] The songs to which Barham contributed include the international hits "My Sweet Lord" and "What Is Life", the album'stitle track, and "Isn't It a Pity".[31] The last of these, Leng writes, "captures the depth of the musical understanding between George Harrison and John Barham", in the interplay betweenslide guitar, orchestra and choir.[32]
Barham provided the orchestration for Harrison's successful follow-up toAll Things Must Pass,Living in the Material World (1973).[33] His arrangements on that album include the string, brass and choral parts on "The Day the World Gets 'Round", "Who Can See It" and "That Is All".[33]
Barham also worked on Harrison's projects with acts signed to the Beatles'Apple record label.[34] Among these releases wasIs This What You Want? (1969) byJackie Lomax,[35]That's the Way God Planned It (1969) byBilly Preston,[36] andRadha Krishna Temple (London)'s 1970 hit single "Govinda".[37] The latter was a musical adaptation of a sacredHindu poem from theSatya Yuga.[38] Through his connection with Harrison, Barham also playedharpsichord onYoko Ono's "Who Has Seen the Wind?",[39] released in February 1970 as theB-side toJohn Lennon's Spector-produced single "Instant Karma!"[40]
Following the success ofAll Things Must Pass, Barham contributed toRonnie Spector's "Try Some, Buy Some" single,[41] Lennon's song "Jealous Guy" (fromImagine) andGary Wright's albumFootprint, all recorded in 1971.[42] He has said of working with Wright and Harrison that "there was a strong [musical] rapport among the three of us" and describes Wright's song "Love to Survive" as "one of the most emotionally powerful love songs that I have ever worked on".[43] In his bookPhil Spector: Out of His Head, music journalistRichard Williams writes of Barham's orchestration on "Try Some, Buy Some": "[The strings and mandolins] sweep and soar in great blocks of sound, pirouetting around each other like acorps de ballet in slow motion. The closing portions of the orchestral arrangement are breathtaking, displaying a geometrical logic which makes use of suspended rhythms drawn out to screaming point."[44]
Barham became involved in music production in the late 1960s, working withQuintessence.[34][45] The latter were aNotting Hill-basedprogressive rock band who, like Harrison,[46] incorporated a Hindu-aligned spiritual message in their music.[47] Barham produced and provided arrangements on the band's first three albums –In Blissful Company,Quintessence andDive Deep – all released onIsland Records between 1969 and 1971.[48] ReviewingQuintessence (1970) inMelody Maker, Richard Williams described Barham's production as "quite superb".[49] In a 2014 feature article on Quintessence, forRecord Collector,Colin Harper praised Barham's contributions to the band's work, labelling him "their very ownGeorge Martin … honing their onstage magic into sublime studio sculptures".[48] Following singer Shiva Shankar Jones's departure from Quintessence,[47] Barham produced his new band's eponymous album,Kala (1972).[34]
In 1973, Barham and Indiansarod playerAashish Khan released an album onElektra Records, titledJugalbandi[34][50] – the word commonly used for duets inHindustani classical music.[51][52] Produced by Barham, withtabla accompaniment fromZakir Hussain,[34] the album featured a piece called "Piano Solos",[50] on which he combined the ragasNat Bhairav, Brindavani Tilang, Marwa andMishra-Kalavati.[53] Asked in a 2009 online interview about the long-unavailableJugalbandi, Barham said: "I haven't composed any more music like that, although I still do compose regularly, but in a more Western style."[45]
Among his work in films, Barham provided the soundtrack forEl Topo (1970), directed byAlejandro Jodorowsky.[54] In 1979, he arranged Richard and Gary Logan's score forThe Human Factor,[55] the final film by directorOtto Preminger.[56] Barham's Indian compositions have featured inBBC documentaries by directorManjira Dhatta. He also supplied the musical score for one ofKatharine Hepburn's last screen appearances,[45] before her retirement from acting in 1994.[57]
His teaching activities have included a role as tutor inSchenkerian analysis atTrinity College of Music, London.[45] Barham also taught at theAchimota School in Ghana, whereWilliam Chapman Nyaho was among his students.[58]
In 1996, Barham collaborated again with Shankar and Harrison on the albumChants of India (1997),[59] providing Western annotation for some of the musicians at Harrison'sFriar Park studio, inHenley, Oxfordshire.[60]Chants of India was one of Shankar's favourite releases among his six decades of recordings,[61] and Barham has said of his own role in the project: "it was a pleasure working on this beautiful record."[62] In August 2000, just over a year before Harrison's death, he and Barham met at a local performance of a choral work byJon Lord, which Barham was conducting, where Harrison asked him to supply an orchestral arrangement for a new song he had recorded.[63]
Barham has played or collaborated with a number of other significant figures in the entertainment industry, includingElton John,André Previn,Roger Daltrey,Gene Pitney andBadfinger.[64] With Simon Leng and formerSplinter songwriterBob Purvis, he formed Inscribe Music in 2007,[65] a company providing services in composing and producing music.[66] Late that year, as part of an initiative by Inscribe, Barham worked withNewcastle College in the north-east of England on a recording of Purvis's song "Sail Away", for release as a single to benefitCancer Research UK.[67] In line with his past achievements in promoting Indian music,[68] the company sought to establish partnerships in the Indian film industry.[66]
In June 2010, Barham reunited with Quintessence when the band performed at the40th Anniversary Glastonbury Festival.[48] He subsequently produced their live albumRebirth: Live at Glastonbury 2010,[48] for which he is also credited as a composer and liner-note writer.[69]
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