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Richard Niles is an American composer, arranger, record producer, guitarist, broadcaster, and journalist.
Niles also scored and conducted strings on Depeche Mode songs "Home", "Only When I Lose Myself" and "Surrender" and for Berlin's "Sex Me Talk Me". He wrote arrangements for Pet Shop Boys, Swing Out Sister, Living in a Box, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, ABC, and Was (Not Was). He has worked with Cliff Richard, Barry Manilow, Ray Charles, Stephen Gately, Ronan Keating, and contributed to hits for Wet Wet Wet, Damage, O-Town, OTT, Take That, Boyzone, and Westlife, including their duet "Against All Odds" with Mariah Carey.
He appeared as the leader of the house band, Bandzilla, in Ruby Wax's Channel 4 television series Don't Miss Wax. Bandzilla released an album of big band instrumentals. Bandzilla was the house band for the Michael Ball television series (1994) with Niles as musical director. Niles wrote and arranged for both Joe Cocker and James Brown on this series. As leader of Bandzilla, he released Blue Movies featuring Guy Barker and John Thirkell (Lifetime Records, 1990) and Bandzilla Rises!!! (Bandzilla Records, 2016) co-produced by John Thirkell and featuring Randy Brecker, Leo Sayer, Clarice Assad, Lamont Dozier Jr. and Nigel Hitchcock.
Niles wrote, arranged, and produced music for Pat Metheny, Bob Mintzer, John Patitucci, Jane Monheit and Bob James. Other jazz-oriented work produced by Niles include albums by Morrissey–Mullen and Jim Mullen. Niles released the albums Santa Rita (Sanctuary) and Club Deranged (Nucool).
Niles discovered British R&B singer Clive Griffin producing and co-writing the album Clive Griffin in 1987 followed by TV appearances and concerts supporting Chaka Khan.
In 1999, Niles discovered the Norwegian singer/songwriter Silje Nergaard, producing and co-writing three albums, Tell Me Where You're Going (EMI/Lifetime Records 1990), Cow On The Highway (Toshiba/EMI 1991) and Silje (Toshiba/EMI 1992). Their song "Tell Me Where You're Going" (b/w a duet of the same song with Pat Metheny) was Number 1 in Japan on the J-Wave charts.
In 2012, Niles moved to Southern California where he opened his studio and production/publishing company Niles Smiles Music.
Niles arranged two albums for the British singer Paul Carrack; Rain Or Shine (2013) and Soul Shadows (2015).
In 2015, Niles became a member/arranger of The Wrecking Crew All Stars led by Don Peake, performing twice at Catalina's Jazz Club in Hollywood.
Niles has also worked for the advertising industry, composing and producing music for TV commercials including McDonald's, Max Factor, Toshiba, Wall's, Nescafé and EuroDisney.
Niles has written books on music. The Pat Metheny Interviews (Pub. Hal Leonard 2009), Polymetrics with Gary O'Toole (Pub. Jazzsense 2011), The Invisible Artist (pub. Amazon Create Space 2014) and From Dreaming To Gigging - Jazz Guitar in 6 Months (Pub. Amazon Create Space 2015).
As a journalist, Niles has been a regular contributor to Making Music since 1994. His radio career began presenting Jazz Notes and Adventures in Jazz on BBC Radio 3 in 1996. Since 1998 he wrote and presented his own BBC Radio 2 program New Jazz Standards, which The Guardian says has "changed the tenor of jazz broadcasting." Niles has since written and presented several BBC Radio 2 documentaries including "The Arrangers" and "Bright Size Life – Pat Metheny".
Niles has taught and given masterclasses in the UK at Brunel University, Leeds College of Music, The Royal Northern College of Music, The Academy of Contemporary Music, The Institute of Contemporary Music and The Tech Schools of Music. In the US he has taught at USC, UCLA, CalState (Northridge), Berklee College Of Music, and the Orange County School of Arts.
Niles wrote the score to The Strike (Comic Strip Films 1988) (Golden Rose of Montreaux, Honorable Mention for music), Do The Right Thing (Universal Pictures 1989), Billy Elliot (orchestration – BBC Films 2000), The Christmas Carol: The Movie (lyrics – MGM 2001), Alice in Russialand (dir. Ken Russell 1995)
Articles by Richard Niles in Making Music magazine:
Articles about Richard Niles:
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