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Musician makes movie comeback Photo by Steve Johnson Bill Jacoby plays along with his violin student Tessa Fosyth, 9, during a recent lesson at his home. Jacoby, who has lived in the Rogue Valley about 10 years, had a long career as a musician in Hollywood. Local music teacher plays in 'Fantasia' BY BILL VARBLE "More bow," Bill Jacoby says to violin student Tessa Forsyth of Medford. The 9-year-old violinist bows avidly on a Christmas carol. "Your sound will improve," Jacoby tells her confidently. The protean Jacoby wears his teaching hat today. Friday he performs on saxophone at Harry and David's Country Store in Medford. Earlier this month he was at 20th Century Fox Studios in Century City working on Disney Studios' re-make of the classic movie, "Fantasia." He says Hollywood was deja vu all over again. It was the first time he worked at the Fox lot since the filming of "Titanic." No, not James Cameron's -- the one with Clifton Webb, Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Wagner. In that 1953 version, Jacoby is the life jacket wearing saxophonist as the ship's band plays "Nearer My God to Thee" and the ship goes down. In "Fantasia 2000" he'll be seen playing viola in an orchestra. A multi-instrumentalist who also plays clarinet, flute, strings, keyboards and electric bass, Jacoby performed and conducted for MGM, Paramount, RKO and Columbia in the halcyon days of the Hollywood studios. The music lesson over, he says movie work for the musicians hasn't changed much in one respect. "Sometimes we'd just wait around most of the day," he says. Musicians spent such days holding impromptu jam sessions or playing chess or cards until they were needed. One day he made more than $300 with overtime. "It's a screwy business," he says. In the old days he worked in such films as "The John Phillip Sousa Story" and in Las Vegas and Reno with Ann-Margret, Sammy Davis Jr., Engelbert Humperdinck, Barry Manilow and Danny Thomas. He played with Don Ricardo's NBC Orchestra and Spike Jones' band, a wild and crazy act. "He was a fine musician," Jacoby says of Jones. "They'd do crazy stuff, take the classics and cornball 'em up." He found time to earn a doctorate in music and education from Washington University in St. Louis, Mo. For "Fantasia 2000," Jacoby says director Don Hahn, who also directed "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and "The Lion King," filmed orchestra members walking onto a stage, tuning up and walking out. Actual recording will be done in a studio. "It's going to be a lot like the first ("Fantasia") I think, except with new camera techniques and the big-name narrators," he says. Signed on are James Earl Jones, Angela Lansbury, Itzhak Perlman, Oprah Winfrey and Yo-Yo Ma. James LeVine, conductor of the New York Metropolitan Opera, conducts the orchestra. Jacoby says the new film has different music, including Beethoven's Symphony No. 5. Jacobi started playing violin at age 4, formed a jazz band in high school and was working in the movies by the time he attended Los Angeles city and state colleges. He moved to the Rogue Valley 10 years ago after coming to play with the Rogue Valley Symphony when he wound up landing a teaching job at the Waldorf School. When he isn't teaching privately, he performs with groups of his own and bands such as Harry Kannasto's Swing Kings. He says he's at work on a book about the power of music to deter violence among young people. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA