College, films, composers, jazz...

At 18, I attended Melbourne State College, where I received my first formal piano lesson and studied classical music for the first time. I worked like a demon because I felt that I needed to make up for lost time. Most professional pianists begin studying this monster of an instrument in early childhood.

After graduating I became the first call pianist for film sessions and was employed by just about every film composer in town. Some of them were great musicians: others were good at convincing the director to give them the job and consequently relied on the musicians to write their music for them. I can’t tell you the number of times I walked into the studio and found an almost blank sheet of manuscript sitting on the music stand. Often there would be a motif which I was suppose to use as a basis on which to create five minutes of music. This is like going to a publisher with an idea for a plot and having one of their authors write the book for you. I hated this aspect of film work because I felt as that I had been taken advantage of and got very little if any credit for my work.

One composer gave me a chord chart and all that was written on the part was something like the letters D minor, F major B minor etc., and he asked me to improvise ‘concerto style’ with sweeping arpeggios up and down the keyboard on those chords he had shorthanded: I did it without giving this much thought. A few weeks later he was boasting, ‘Joe read every note I wrote’!

But I got to work with a couple of really great musicians such as Bruce Smeaton and Jerry Goldsmith, which I enjoyed very much. Besides, most of the players on film sessions are plucked from symphony orchestras, so no matter what else happens, the playing is always going to be first class. Plus, I even got to orchestrate the music and conduct the orchestra on a few films. I guess I’ve played on over 60 sound tracks, the most famous being BABE.

While my heart remained with jazz I made my living by playing with a great variety of performers. I’ve accompanied Shirley Bassey, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Vince Jones, Olivia Newton John and most of the well-known Australian performers. I got to play with some wonderful jazz artists such as Lee Konitz, Ernie Watts, Billy Cobham, Randy Brecker and Ray Brown.