Table of Biography
Trevor Jones is a popular South African film and TV score composer. Trevor Jones has worked on many films such as “Runaway Train”, “The Dark Crystal”, “Mississippi Burning”, “In The Name of the Father”, “Excalibur,”, and many more.
Early Life and Childhood
Trevor Jones was born Trevor Alfred Charles Jones on March 23, 1949, in Cape Town, South Africa. He is currently 74 years old. However, there is no information about his parents and other relatives. He holds South African nationality and was born under the sun sign Aries. Other than this there is no further information about his early life and childhood.
Trevor Jones – Education
He received a scholarship to attend the Royal Academy of Music in London in 1967, and he afterward spent five years working for the BBC writing evaluations of music for radio and television. Jones enrolled at the University of York in 1974, where he received his master’s in film and media music.
Moreover, Jones studied basic filmmaking, as well as film and sound techniques, for three years at the National Film and Television School. He composed the music for twenty-two student projects during this time.
Career and Professional Life
Jones decided to become a film composer at the young age of six. He received a scholarship to attend the Royal Academy of Music in London in 1967, and he afterward spent five years working for the BBC writing evaluations of music for radio and television.
Jones enrolled at the University of York in 1974, where he received his master’s in film and media music. Jones studied basic filmmaking, as well as film and sound techniques, for three years at the National Film and Television School. He composed the music for twenty-two student projects during this time. Jones composed the music for the 1981 short films Black Angel and The Dollar Bottom, which both won Academy Awards.
Caption: Trevor Jones in his recording studio
Source: SoundTrackFest
Jones was quickly brought to John Boorman’s notice, who was working on his 1981 Arthurian epic, Excalibur. Boorman used classical music by Richard Wagner and Carl Orff to track the events most of the time, but some sequences also required his dramatic signals (as well as historical music). A “name” composer was out of the question for Excalibur because of its limited budget, so Boorman hired the upcoming young Jones instead.
While working on The Dark Crystal (1982), Jim Henson was looking for a composer who was young and willing to work in the experimental, free-wheeling style that Henson favored.
Excalibur brought Jones to Henson’s attention. The resulting score is a vast, complex composition that makes use of the London Symphony Orchestra as well as imaginative use of Fairlight and Synclavier synthesizers and vintage instruments like the crumhorn, recorder, and the unusual double-flageolet, which Jones discovered by chance in a music store.
More about his career
Jones composed the music for the horror movies The Appointment and The Sender as well as the 1983 pirate adventure Savage Islands after Excalibur. For the famous television series The Last Place on Earth, Jones wrote one of his best compositions in 1985. Jones and Henson collaborated once more on the fantasy musical Labyrinth in 1986. The hit song “Underground” by David Bowie, who also wrote and sang the vocal parts for this film, was given by Jones, who also composed the dramatic music.
Jones’s score for The Last of the Mohicans became his most well-known achievement later in 1992, and its soaring, impassioned melody betrays the challenges that hampered its composition.
In the end, it was felt that an orchestral soundtrack would be more fitting for this historical epic. Director Michael Mann had originally wanted Jones to compose an electronic score for the movie. Jones raced to rework the score for orchestra in the little time that was left, and because the picture was constantly being recut, music parts occasionally had to be reworked many times to keep up with the changing timings.
Jones started composing orchestral soundtracks for many Hallmark projects, including Gulliver’s Travels, Merlin, and Cleopatra, in the 1990s when he first started working in television. A swing-band adaptation of Christopher Marlowe’s The Passionate Shepherd to His Love is included in his enjoyable, jazzy, 1930s-inspired score for the 1995 film Richard III. For the first time, Jones and Ridley Scott collaborated in 1997 on the music for G.I. Jane, a movie with an electronic, symphonic, and rock flavor.
Personal Life
Trevor Jones is a straight-gender person. As for his marital status, he is a married man. He tied the knot with Victoria Seale. However, there are no more details about their wedding and married life. He is the father of four kids but their details are not available.
Trevor Jones – Net Worth 2024
Trevor Jones is one of the most successful South African film composers. He has earned a decent amount of money throughout his career. He has a net worth of $300K as of 2024. But he hasn’t shared his salary and other asset values.
Social Media
Reflecting on his social media presence, he is only active on Facebook. His Facebook account ‘Trevor Jones’ has more than 1.1K followers to date. However, he is not active on other social media sites like Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and so on.
Trevor Jones – Body Measurements
Coming to his physical appearance, despite his old age, Trevor Jones has a fit body personality. However, there are no details about his height, weight, waist size, dress size, shoe size, and so on. But looking at his pictures we can assume that he has a pair of black eyes with white colored hair.