Jay chattaway biography

American composer

Musical artist

Jay Chattaway (born July 8, 1946) is an American composer of film and television scores. He is mainly known for his work as composer for several Star Trek television series: Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise.

In 2001, he won an Emmy for Outstanding Music for a Series for the final episode of Star Trek: Voyager.

Early life

Chattaway was born in Monongahela, Pennsylvania and studied music at West Virginia University.

College career

At WVU, Chattaway was also a member of many student organizations, including the Mountaineer Marching Band, Lambda Chi Alpha social fraternity, Kappa Kappa Psi honorary band service fraternity, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia men's music social fraternity.

He was initiated into the Omicron chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi at WVU on December 6, 1965, and is currently an alumni brother of the fraternity. His initiation into the Epsilon Sigma chapter of Phi Mu Alpha took place on March 1, 1965.

He became a regular member of a rhythm and blues band called the Abductors in which he played trumpet, wrote the musical scores, and was musical director.

Music career

Chattaway was drafted into the military while working on his graduate degree and joined the Navy Band, serving as the unit's chief arranger and composer. After his discharge from the Navy, Chattaway moved to New York City to write music. He later moved to Los Angeles to compose for film.

Chattaway is also well known as an arranger of big band charts for the Maynard Ferguson Orchestra during the 1970s, and also composed or co-composed some of Ferguson's hits, including "Conquistador", "Superbone Meets the Bad Man", and "Primal Scream". Years before his association with the Star Trek franchise, Chattaway also arranged and produced a 1979 version of the theme from Star Trek by Jerry Goldsmith.

Chattaway's film scores include

Composer Jay Chattaway is best known for the prodigious amount of music he contributed to the venerated Star Trek franchise. He scored 42 episodes of The Next Generation series (1990-94), 59 episodes of the Deep Space Nine series (1993-99), 54 episodes of Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001) and 28 episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise (2001-05).

In exploring “strange new worlds” and boldly going where no man has gone before, Chattaway has ensured himself a legacy and a fan base in worlds far beyond the one I want to delve into here.

The composer and arranger also scored many popular, low-budget cult films in the eighties and nineties, from the weirdly classic Maniac (1980 – his first feature), The Big Score (1983) and the Maniac Cop films (1988, 1990) to Red Scorpion (1988) and a handful of Chuck Norris movies.

Chattaway’s sole big-budget film, Silver Bullet (1985), may have pigeon-holed him as a horror composer at a time when the genre wasn’t attracting bigger budgets. But, oddly, that Dino De Laurentiis production never led to other high-profile gigs in other film genres either.

What is revealing is that Chattaway, whose tastes did not include a love of horror, offered those genre films something much deeper, more emotional and, ultimately, more profound than the average B-movie score. Here, he composed very much against type – or, cliche. He also notably resisted doing copycat scores – even when requested – that mirrored such popular horror score-makers of the day as Goblin, John Carpenter or Pino Donaggio.

But what is largely forgotten today is that Jay Chattaway entered the music business via jazz, or, more specifically, the trumpeter Maynard Ferguson (1928-2006) in the early seventies.

Jay Chattaway was born on July 8, 1946, in Monongahela, Pennsylvania, an old steel town 17 miles southeast of Pittsburgh – and about an hour away from where I’m writing this now. He started taking piano le

date of birth: 08.07.1946

Jay A. Chattaway, born in Monongahela, Pa., came to West Virginia University on a music scholarship. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in music in 1968 and while studying for his master’s degree, served as assistant director of bands.

In 1969, he joined the U.S. Navy and began work with the arranging staff of the U.S. Navy Band in Washington, D.C. He was later named chief arranger and composer-in-residence, a post he held for seven years. During this time, Chattaway composed music for the navy band, orchestra and chorus. In addition, he composed selections for the White House and created original music for government training films.

Following his military service in 1976, he entered the recording industry through CBS records in New York City. As a staff producer and later as head of Jazz Artists and Repertoire at Columbia Records, he worked with many artists including Carly Simon, The Talking Heads, David Byrne, Bob James, Gato Barbieri and Maynard Ferguson.

His arrangement of The Theme from Rocky for Ferguson resulted in his first Grammy nomination and a Gold Album. For Ferguson’s album Conquistador, he arranged a jazz version of Alexander George’s Star Trek theme, which became a hit single. Chattaway’s work garnered him for four Grammy nominations for jazz and instrumental arranging and composing and four Gold Albums.

In 1979, he formed Tappan Zee Records with colleague, Bob James. Three years later, when their contract with Columbia expired, Chattaway left the recording industry to score films, first in New York then in Hollywood. Since then, he has worked on 22 feature films including Stephen King’s Silver Bullet, Missing in Action starring Chuck Norris and Something Wild directed by Oscar-winner Jonathan Demme.

Chattaway has composed and arranged original music for advertising clients such as Coca-Cola, DuPont and California Fruits. His interest in world music and love for the sea

Jay Chattaway

Emmy-winning composer Jay Chattaway (born8 July1946; age 78) has written musical scores for numerous episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise.

He has been nominated for an Emmy Award five times for his work on Star Trek, winning in 2001 for his score for the Star Trek: Voyager series finale, "Endgame". In addition, he won (or shared) eight ASCAP Awards for his music, all in the Top TV Series category. His name appeared on a crew manifest in the Voyager episode "Projections". Some of Chattaway's Trek scores have been released as part of the GNP Crescendo album Star Trek: The Next Generation Volume 4 and their release of the Voyager pilot episode "Caretaker", as well as the La-La Land collections for Star Trek: The Next Generation (volumes one and two), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (volumes one and two), Star Trek: Voyager (volumes one and two), and Star Trek: Enterprise (volumes one and two).

Chattaway was born in Monongahela, Pennsylvania and was a member of the band "The Astronotes" while attending high school. He received a scholarship to study composition at West Virginia University of Creative Arts and later attended the Eastman School of Music, the Catholic University and the Institute of Audio Research. Chattaway recalls "It taught me how to write fast" about his time in the Navy band in Washington, D.C. during the Vietnam War. (The Official Star Trek: The Next Generation Magazine Vol. 13, p. 32)

In 1976 he moved to Manhattan and became staff producer for CBS Records where he worked with artists such as Carly Simon, David Byrne and Maynard Ferguson. For Ferguson's album "Conquistador", he arranged a jazz version of Alexander Courage's Star Trek theme. Through his collabo