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Richard Williams

Richard Williams is a versatile composer skilled in a wide spectrum of genres and moods from epic orchestral to touching piano to fast-paced EDM.  While earning his bachelor’s degree at Brigham Young University, he won two Student Emmys at the College TV Awards for his film scores to BYU’s animations.  Following his education, he went on to record music for a book soundtrack to Brandon Sanderson’s fantasy novel ‘The Way of Kings’.  Richard is a founding member of the cinematic pop band TREN, whose numerous projects include music for Tencent’s PUBG MOBILE video game and author Sariah Wilson’s novel ‘Moonstruck’.

Richard has written music for short films, vocal artists, and YouTube stars which have gained millions of views. He also has written music for a variety of video games including the “Rise of the Gunters” VR video game based on Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One movie.  He was a finalist for both the Unsigned Only Music Competition and the International Songwriting Competition (ISC) and has received two nominations at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards (HMMA).  He was selected as a Fellow for the LA Film Conducting Intensive in Hollywood where he was tutored by Conrad Pope and Bill Ross, and has recorded his music in Prague, Budapest, Capitol Studios, and the iconic Fox Alfred Newman Scoring Stage in Hollywood. 


His latest work is his debut album, “Hollywood Christmas”, that revisits the world of timeless Christmas big band jazz and orchestral music in the style of musical legends such as Frank Sinatra, Michael Bublé, and The Carpenters.


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Album Review

Richard Williams: Hollywood Christmas

Read "Hollywood Christmas" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci


Ready or not, Christmas music is on the way. And this is Christmas music, old school. Do you remember The Andy Williams Christmas Album? Then, as the old joke goes, there may be fire in the hearth, but snow on the roof, because that was 1963, at least the first version. This recording, for sure, is a walk down memory lane and will produce a lot of nostalgia in listeners of a certain age. For some folks, that ...

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Video / DVD

Gigi Gryce + Richard Williams

Gigi Gryce + Richard Williams

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Last week, I posted on composer-arranger and alto saxophonist Gigi Gryce and his Jazz Lab partnership with trumpeter Donald Byrd in 1957. I also mentioned that that their union came to an end when Byrd went off to Paris for six months starting in July 1958. Upon his return in December, Byrd began recording as a leader for Blue Note, starting with Off to the Races. Today I want to pick up with the Gryce storyline. In the year that ...

Recording

Richard Williams: New Horn in Town

Richard Williams: New Horn in Town

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

A couple of weeks ago, I posted on Red Garland's sole recording session with Oliver Nelson in March 1961. The trumpeter on the date was Richard Williams, who many readers admired but knew little about. Curiously, Williams recorded only one leadership date—for Nat Hentoff's short-lived Candid label. It's called New Horn in Town and featured Leo Wright on alto sax and flute, Richard Wyands on piano, Reggie Workman on bass and Bobby Thomas on drums. New Horn in Town was ...

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Hollywood Christmas

Self-Produced
2022

buy

Screamin' The Blues

Analogue Productions
1961

buy

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