John Williams at Ronnie Scott's

John Williams is almost certainly the most accomplished performer on the Spanish classical guitar that the world has ever seen. 

Guitar technique was considerably developed and extended in the early years of this century by Andrés Segovia, but he was self-taught and did not begin to develop the technique until he was about sixteen years of age. He also extended the repertoire and established the Spanish guitar on the concert platform of the world.

Among the musicians who understood Segovia’s astonishing achievement, was the English jazz guitarist, Len Williams, and, as a consequence, his son, John, became the first virtuoso classical guitarist to be prepared for a concert career and taught the new technique from the essential early age of six. By the age of twelve, he was studying with Segovia and his mastery of the instrument soon became, without question, second to none.

John Williams has done a great deal to try and break down the barriers that exist between classical and other types of music. For this reason, he chose Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, which is the première jazz club in Europe and appeared there nightly for two weeks with a mixed repertoire. In so doing, he succeeded very well in bringing the classical and jazz audiences together.

The film is centered on one evening in Ronnie Scott’s Club in which John Williams plays music by Villa-Llobos, Stanley Myers, Michael Praetorius, Domenico Scarlatti, Fernando Sor, J S Bach, Isaac Albeniz, Manuel Ponce and Julio Sagreras.

The scope of the film is also extended by sequences which show John Williams working with two contemporary composers, Stephen Dodgson and Patrick Gowers, on new works for guitar and orchestra