Celebrate the Holidays with Richard Williams: Hollywood Christmas

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On HOLLYWOOD CHRISTMAS, composer and multi-instrumentalist RICHARD WILLIAMS weaves a rich tapestry of big band swing, orchestral, and rock arrangements that create a new, updated sound for a dozen Christmas classics.

Williams has found success writing music for the lucrative online gaming market. Although he has been playing and composing music for over 15 years, HOLLYWOOD CHRISTMAS is his debut album. Partly driven by his Mormon faith, Williams decided to show off his considerable arranging chops by putting his own spin on these well-known and beloved songs.

Williams was born in Utah but grew up in Salinas, CA. He started studying piano at a young age and performed with his school band since elementary school. After a while, with his mind buzzing with musical ideas, he began learning to play other instruments and eventually learned the sax, trombone, clarinet, and trumpet. He first became inspired to compose music when we saw the movie "Amadeus, " which was about Mozart and his contentious relationship with fellow composer Salieri. Williams says, "I was very young when I saw the movie, but I fell in love with composing, and I knew from then on that I wanted to write music."

Williams returned to Utah to study at Brigham Young University and has remained in Provo ever since. He majored in film scoring and, since his mother is from Japan, he also majored in Japanese. While in school, he composed music for student films and garnered two Student Emmys (College TV Awards) for his scores for student animation films.

Although orchestral music was William's first love, he enjoyed playing in school jazz bands and became enamored of the big band sound, especially Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band. But writing for the online game market requires a composer to be able to write in different styles, and Williams soon became adept at writing and arranging in a wide variety of genres.

He was inspired to record an album after taking a master class with Chris Walden, who has written 1, 500 orchestral and big band arrangements for artists like Michael Bublé, Josh Groban, and Paul McCartney, among many others. The time Williams spent in class was invaluable, and after recording one of his compositions with Walden's band as part of the curriculum, he was energized to begin his own full-length project.

Williams is attracted to mainstream jazz and has been particularly enamored with Michael Bublé's Christmas album and the Carpenters' album, Christmas Portrait, for the way it encompassed pop and sacred music along with light classical and light jazz. Williams wanted the same elements on his album but with an even bigger, more lush sound, so he began his project by assembling a top-notch band of some very well-known jazz musicians, including saxophonists ERIC MARIENTHAL, SAL LOZANO, BRANDON FIELDS, DAN KANEYUKI, and WILL VARGAS; trumpet players WAYNE BERGERON, ROB SCHAER, KYE PALMER, and MITCHELL COOPER; and trombonists ANDY MARTIN, JOEY SELLERS, ERIK HUGHES, and ROBERT TODD. RICHARD WILLIAMS on piano, TREY HENRY on bass, and BERNIE DRESEL on drums, round out the rhythm section. To create the orchestral sound, Williams also engaged the famed Budapest Scoring Orchestra for strings and additional woodwinds.

To add to the album's vibrant texture, William's brought on board several of his favorite vocalists to perform as solo artists and in various combinations on each of the songs. "Every singer has their own sound and own approach, " says Williams. "I chose singers that I thought would do the best job on each of the songs, and I then arranged the songs to fit each singer's style and vocal range."

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