Jerry Martin is an American

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

, best known for his work composing music (particularly

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

) for television commercials, and being the lead composer for several games in ''

The Sims ''The Sims'' is a series of life simulation video games developed by Maxis and Video game publisher, published by Electronic Arts. The franchise has sold nearly 200 million copies worldwide, and is one of the List of best-selling video game fran ...

'' franchise, including '' SimCity 3000'', ''

'', '' The Sims Bustin' Out'', ''

The Sims 2 ''The Sims 2'' is a 2004 social simulation video game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. It is the second major title in ''The Sims'' series, and is the sequel to ''The Sims''. The game was released for Microsoft Windows on ...

'' and ''

SimCity 4 ''SimCity 4'' is a city-building game, city-building Construction and management simulation games, simulation Personal computer game, computer game developed by Maxis, a subsidiary of Electronic Arts. The game was released in January 2003 for Mi ...

''. He made a return in 2020 with ''SimCasino''.

Early life and education

Martin began taking music lessons at the age of 10 and played

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

and keyboards in various ensembles through his high school and college education. Martin received his Bachelor of Arts degree in music composition from

California State University, Hayward California State University, East Bay (Cal State East Bay, CSU East Bay, or CSUEB) is a public university in Hayward, California. The university is part of the California State University system and offers 136 undergraduate and 60 post-baccala ...

and a Master of Fine Arts from the Center for Contemporary Music at

Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland, California is part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was relocated to Oakland in ...

Career

In 1985, he founded his original music composition and production company called "Musicontrol". From 1985 to 1995, Martin composed and produced music for various projects such as video soundtracks to national TV and radio commercials, working with over 90 individual film, video and ad agency producers on over 200 different commissions from companies such as

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

Toyota is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on August 28, 1937. Toyota is the List of manuf ...

, the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

Honda commonly known as just Honda, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate automotive manufacturer headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in October 1946 by Soichiro Honda, Honda has bee ...

, and others. In 1996, Martin joined the

Maxis Maxis is an American video game developer and a Division (business), division of Electronic Arts (EA). The studio was founded in 1987 by Will Wright (game designer), Will Wright and Jeff Braun, and acquired by Electronic Arts in 1997. Maxis is ...

division of

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

as studio audio director and Lead Composer. From 1996 through 2004, he composed and produced music and directed the audio for multi-platinum video game franchises such as ''

'' and ''

SimCity ''SimCity'' is an open-ended city-building video game franchise originally designed by Will Wright. The first game in the series, '' SimCity'', was published by Maxis in 1989 and was followed by several sequels and many other spin-off ''S ...

''. In 2005, Martin started his new company, Jerry Martin Music, and is currently working on various professional and personal musical projects.

Works

Video game soundtracks

* ''

''http://www.jerrymartinmusic.com/video_credits.php Jerry Martin's video game credits at his official site * '' The Sims Livin' Large'' * '' The Sims House Party'' * ''

The Sims Hot Date ''The Sims'' is a social simulation video game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts in 2000. The game allows players to create and control virtual people, called "Sims", and manage their daily lives in a suburban setting. The gam ...

'' * '' The Sims Vacation'' * '' The Sims Unleashed'' * '' The Sims Superstar'' * '' The Sims Makin' Magic'' * '' The Sims Bustin' Out'' * '' The Sims Online'' * ''

'' * '' SimCity 3000'' * '' SimCity 3000 Unlimited'' * ''

'' * '' SimCity 4 Rush Hour'' * '' SimCopter'' * '' SimTunes'' * '' SimPark'' * '' SimSafari'' * '' SimGolf'' * '' Streets of SimCity'' * '' Supercross 2000'' * '' Tony La Russa Baseball'' * '' SimCasino'' * '' Tromi''

Companies whose TV commercials feature Martin's compositions

* AT&T Communications * Acer Corporation * Alamo Car Rental *

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

* Avocet * Buick Dealers Association * Cost Plus Imports *

* Emporium * GMC Trucks Dealers Association * Gallo Salame * Grass Valley Group * Growing Healthy Inc. * Hilltop Shopping Center * Hitachi Data Systems *

Dealers Association * KTVU Channel 2 * Landor Associates * Longs Drug Stores * Lucky Stores *

* Nationwide Marketing * Olympic Stain * Pacific Bell * Philip Morris *

Primerica Primerica, Inc. is a multi-level marketing company that provides insurance, Investment management, investment and financial services to middle-income families in the United States and Canada. Primerica is the parent company of National Bene ...

* Project Open Hand * RSCVA * Raychem Corporation *

Quantum In physics, a quantum (: quanta) is the minimum amount of any physical entity (physical property) involved in an interaction. The fundamental notion that a property can be "quantized" is referred to as "the hypothesis of quantization". This me ...

* Rolm * Safeway Eastern Division * Sierra Pacific Power * Southern Pacific *

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc., often known as Sun for short, was an American technology company that existed from 1982 to 2010 which developed and sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services. Sun contributed sig ...

* SYVA * Suzuki USA *

* Toyota USA *

Dealers Association * Weinstock's * Wells Fargo Bank * Wesson Oil * Yamaha USA

References

External links

Jerry Martin's official siteComposer profile
at OverClocked ReMix {{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Jerry Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American jazz composers Electronic Arts employees American male jazz composers California State University, East Bay alumni Maxis American video game composers