By RACHID AOULI, Associated Press Writer Rachid Aouli, Associated Press Writer

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Mon Mar 30, 6:50 pm ET

PARIS – Oscar-winning composer Maurice Jarre, who captured the majesty of the desert in his music for “Lawrence of Arabia” and wrote the haunting “Lara’s Theme” in his score for “Doctor Zhivago,” has died. He was 84.

Jarre died in his villa in California, where he had lived for decades, Bernard Miyet, a friend of the composer and leader of the French musicians’ guild SACEM, said Monday. No cause of death was given.

“The world of film music is mourning one of its last great figures,” Miyet said. “As well as his talent, Maurice Jarre cultivated an eternal good nature, a way of living and a simplicity that became legendary.”

Born in 1924 in Lyon, France, Jarre studied music at the Conservatoire de Paris, training initially as a kettledrum player. He started his career composing scores for theatrical productions and worked 12 years as permanent composer at the Theatre National Populaire.

He soon branched into composing soundtracks for movies, and in 1961 worked on director David Lean’s “Lawrence of Arabia,” for which he won his first Oscar.

He won a second for his work on another Lean film, “Doctor Zhivago,” based on the novel by Boris Pasternak. The movie’s song “Lara’s Theme” became a hit single and earned him worldwide recognition.

Jarre collaborated with Lean again in 1984 on “A Passage to India,” winning his third Academy Award.

Jarre’s musical style was noted for his use of ethnic instruments, and later synthetic sounds.

He mixed traditional Indonesian instruments with electronic music in the score for Australian Peter Weir’s 1982 film “The Year of Living Dangerously” — the story of an Australian journalist covering a military coup in Indonesia.

In 1989, he layered Celtic harp and flute over synthesizers in the soundtrack for “Dead Poet’s Society.”

After moving to California in the early 1960s, Jarre returned to Europe regularly, working in France with Rene Clement on the score for “Is Paris Burning?” in 1966 and with Franco Zefirelli on “Jesus of Nazareth” in 1977.

He received a lifetime achievement award at the Berlin Film Festival in February, after a career including more than 150 soundtracks. He worked with some of Hollywood’s most well-known directors including William Wyler, John Huston, Michael Apted, Alfred Hitchcock and Alfonso Arau.

He had “a sense of grandeur” and knew how “to translate in a very short time, very few notes, absolutely essential feelings,” French film music expert Stephane Lerouge said.

Neil Portnow, president of the Recording Academy in Santa Monica, Calif., praised Jarre for the versatility of his works. “His stylistic reach extended from classical music to tribal music to electronica, and he always created a unique sonic ambiance that set the mood for the film.”

Jarre was made an officer in the French Legion of Honor for his contribution to culture. French President Nicolas Sarkozy hailed Jarre as “a great composer who bequeaths us a generous and majestic body of work.”

“In choosing to work above all for the cinema … Maurice Jarre broadened the public for symphonic music,” Sarkozy said in a statement. “He showed everyone that music is just as important as images for the beauty and success of a film.”

Jarre was married four times. He is survived by two sons, screenwriter Kevin and electronic musician Jean-Michel, as well as a daughter, Stefanie.

No information was immediately available about funeral arrangements.

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Associated Press writers Scott Sayare in Paris and Christina Hoag in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

By JEFF KAROUB, Associated Press Writer Jeff Karoub, Associated Press Writer

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37 mins ago

DETROIT – Uriel Jones, a drummer whose versatile, passionate beat fueled classic Motown hits, has died following complications from a heart attack. He was 74.

Jones — who died Tuesday, according to sister-in-law Leslie Coleman — was part of the Funk Brothers, the house band on Motown recordings.

He played on numerous tracks, including “My Girl” and “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” performed by the Temptations, “Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours” by Stevie Wonder, “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted” by Jimmy Ruffin, and versions of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” by Marvin Gaye and Gladys Knight and the Pips.

Paul Riser, a Motown arranger-musician, said Jones had a distinctive, driving sound that drew inspiration from his days as a boxer. Yet, Riser said, Jones also could play with restraint when the song called for it.

“There was a pulse in his playing … that nobody else had,” said Riser, who co-wrote “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted.” “He loved music for the sake of music. He loved when it came out good and he hated when it came out bad.”

Riser said Jones often played with the surviving Funk Brothers, who were the focus of an acclaimed 2002 documentary film called “Standing in the Shadows of Motown.” That film brought the players belated recognition in the wider world that largely escaped them in Motown’s 1960s and early ’70s heyday.

Riser said he spoke last week with Jones, who was excited about “getting busy again” since being hospitalized with an early February heart attack.

“He expressed to me he missed his first Funk Brothers gig (last month),” Riser said. “I could sense the disappointment in his voice. There was an energy he exuded to get back in the band and get going again.”

Jones was one of many Motown musicians who went to the former studio in the Motown Historical Museum on Jan. 12 to help kick off a year of festivities marking the label’s 50th anniversary.

Abdul “Duke” Fakir, the lone surviving original member of the Four Tops, used the occasion to praise Jones and his fellow Funk Brothers.

“When they’d finish a song, we, the Four Tops, had a nice phrase,” Fakir said. “We’d say, `Wow, another red carpet to ride on.’”

In an interview with The Associated Press after the ceremony, Jones said the cramped studio where most of Motown’s early songs were created deserved as much credit as the players.

“This room is alive,” he said. “As far as the musicians are concerned … we had to have eye contact with one another because we fed off one another. The place just created its own sound.”

Coleman described her brother-in-law — who’s survived by his wife, June, and three children — as a man of humor and humility.

“He was a father to the fatherless, a brother to the brotherless,” she said. “He had a love for people.”