Author(s): William Starling

Music

John Williams is indisputably one of the most accomplished and celebrated musicians of his generation. A master of the classical genre, he has been pivotal in bringing the guitar to a wider audience with the group SKY and through collaborations involving the music of South America, Africa and jazz. The product of unprecedented cooperation from Williams, his family, friends and professional associates, Without Strings is the first telling of the fascinating life of a world-renowned musician and, equally, the story of a man and the making of his identity. John Williams might never have come to the guitar, allowing his extraordinary talent to blossom, without the foresight, ambition and subtle discipline of his father and teacher, Len Williams and, to a lesser extent, his mother Melaan. Williams has almost certainly exceeded any dream his father dared have for him as a classical guitarist. But while fulfilling that ambition did he also, in his own quiet way, rebel against the authoritarian nature of his father?
As it tells John's story, this book challenges its readers to consider the influence of his father, for good and ill, as it contributed to making John Williams the successful, complex and compassionate man he was to become.