24 Facts About John Barham

John Barham was born on 1942 and is an English classical pianist, composer, arranger, producer and educator.

John Barham is best known for his orchestration of George Harrison albums such as All Things Must Pass and for his association with Indian sitar maestro Ravi Shankar.

John Barham became a student of Shankar, for whose East–West collaborations with Yehudi Menuhin and others he transcribed Indian melodies into Western musical annotation.

John Barham collaborated with Harrison on the latter's Wonderwall Music soundtrack album, before providing the orchestral arrangements for All Things Must Pass songs such as "Isn't It a Pity" and "My Sweet Lord", and for Harrison's 1973 album Living in the Material World.

John Barham then attended London University's School of Oriental and African Studies, where he developed an interest in Indian classical music.

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John Barham became a student of Indian sitarist and composer Ravi Shankar, whose international popularity by 1966 had grown to include Western rock audiences.

At Shankar's request, John Barham transcribed the sitarist's adaptation of Raga Tilang into Western musical annotation for Menuhin's benefit, after Shankar had been dissatisfied with German musician Peter Feuchtwanger's attempt to adapt the same raga.

Later in 1966, on Menuhin and Shankar's Grammy Award-winning album West Meets East, John Barham supplied liner notes, explaining the various musical terms particular to Indian music.

John Barham served as musical annotator on several subsequent East–West collaborations by Shankar, who described him as "a brilliant young pianist".

In March 1967, John Barham attended the recording session for Harrison's Indian-styled composition "Within You, Without You", released on the Beatles' seminal album Sgt.

John Barham later wrote the choral arrangements for Phil Spector's controversial production of "The Long and Winding Road" and "Across the Universe", issued on the band's final album, Let It Be.

John Barham played a key collaborative role on Harrison's soundtrack to the Joe Massot-directed film Wonderwall.

The album was co-produced by Spector, whose "distant and authoritarian" style John Barham says he found difficult to adapt to after the "intimate, friendly atmosphere" typical of Harrison sessions.

John Barham provided the orchestration for Harrison's successful follow-up to All Things Must Pass, Living in the Material World.

John Barham worked on Harrison's projects with acts signed to the Beatles' Apple record label.

John Barham became involved in music production in the late 1960s, working with Quintessence.

John Barham produced and provided arrangements on the band's first three albums – In Blissful Company, Quintessence and Dive Deep – all released on Island Records between 1969 and 1971.

John Barham supplied the musical score for one of Katharine Hepburn's last screen appearances, before her retirement from acting in 1994.

John Barham's teaching activities have included a role as tutor in Schenkerian analysis at Trinity College of Music, London.

John Barham taught at the Achimota School in Ghana, where William Chapman Nyaho was among his students.

In 1996, John Barham collaborated again with Shankar and Harrison on the album Chants of India, providing Western annotation for some of the musicians at Harrison's Friar Park studio, in Henley, Oxfordshire.

Late that year, as part of an initiative by Inscribe, John Barham worked with Newcastle College in the north-east of England on a recording of Purvis's song "Sail Away", for release as a single to benefit Cancer Research UK.

In June 2010, John Barham reunited with Quintessence when the band performed at the 40th Anniversary Glastonbury Festival.

John Barham subsequently produced their live album Rebirth: Live at Glastonbury 2010, for which he is credited as a composer and liner-note writer.