James Newton Howard - Early Life and Career

Early Life and Career

Howard was born in Los Angeles, California. Twenty-five years after the death of his father, Howard learned that his father's family was Jewish (Howard later became a practicing Reconstructionist Jew).

Throughout his career as a composer/musician/songwriter, he has scored films of all scales and genres, earning multiple award nominations for his work. Howard began studying music as a child and went on to attend the Thacher School in Ojai, California, the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California. He then attended the University of Southern California as a piano performance major, but dropped out after a year because "He was tired of practicing the piano".

After Howard left college, he toured with Elton John as a keyboardist during the late 1970s and early 1980s (he was part of the band that played behind John in Central Park, New York, on September 13, 1980). Howard also arranged strings for several of Elton's songs during this period including on the hits "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" and "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word", as well as playing additional keyboards and synthesizers on several of Elton's studio albums, including "Rock of the Westies" (1975), "Blue Moves" (1976)you, "21 at 33" (1980), and "The Fox" (1981).

In 1982, Howard was featured on Toto IV as the strings conductor and orchestrator for I Won't Hold You Back, Afraid Of Love, and Lovers In The Night. A year later, he released the live album James Newton Howard and Friends, which featured Toto's David Paich (keyboards), Steve Porcaro (keyboards), Jeff Porcaro (drums) and Joe Porcaro (percussion).

After his tenure with Elton John, Howard toured briefly with Crosby, Stills and Nash before moving into film music in the mid-1980s. Howard did, however, return for a brief collaboration with Elton John on his Tour De Force of Australia at the fall of 1986. Howard conducted both his own and Paul Buckmaster's arrangements during the second half of the set, which focused on orchestrated performances of selected songs from John's catalog.

From 1986 to 1987, Howard was married to actress Rosanna Arquette.