Barham trained at the Royal College of Music and the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, before establishing himself during the mid 1960s as a composer of piano interpretations of Indian classical ragas.
His projects as a music producer during the same period included three albums by progressive rock band Quintessence, and he has worked on film or TV soundtracks for directors Otto Preminger, Alejandro Jodorowsky and Jonathan Miller.
Other artists with whom Barham has worked include Elton John, André Previn, Phil Spector, Roger Daltrey, Yoko Ono and Jackie Lomax.
Continuing his interest in Indian music, Barham released an album with ya Aashish Khan in 1973, Jugalbandi, and contributed to Shankar's final collaboration with Harrison, Chants of India, in 1996.
Among English classical musicians of the mid 1960s, Barham's piano compositions based on Indian ragas were unprecedented and brought him to the attention of members of India's cultural community in London.
[3][4] In June that year, Barham attended the Bath Music Festival in the west of England, where Shankar and American violinist Yehudi Menuhin were due to perform an historic duet.
[10] Released as Wonderwall Music, and described by author Peter Lavezzoli as "a charming potpourri of Indian and Western sounds",[28] it features Barham on piano, harmonium and flugelhorn, and in the role of orchestral arranger.
"[40] Following the success of All Things Must Pass, Barham contributed to Ronnie Spector's "Try Some, Buy Some" single,[41] Lennon's song "Jealous Guy" (from Imagine) and Gary Wright's album Footprint, all recorded in 1971.
[43] In his book Phil Spector: Out of His Head, music journalist Richard Williams writes of Barham's orchestration on "Try Some, Buy Some": "[The strings and mandolins] sweep and soar in great blocks of sound, pirouetting around each other like a corps de ballet in slow motion.
[49] In a 2014 feature article on Quintessence, for Record Collector, Colin Harper praised Barham's contributions to the band's work, labelling him "their very own George Martin … honing their onstage magic into sublime studio sculptures".
[34] In 1973, Barham and Indian sarod player Aashish Khan released an album on Elektra Records, titled Jugalbandi[34][50] – the word commonly used for duets in Hindustani classical music.
[51][52] Produced by Barham, with tabla accompaniment from Zakir Hussain,[34] the album featured a piece called "Piano Solos",[50] on which he combined the ragas Nat Bhairav, Brindavani Tilang, Marwa and Mishra-Kalavati.
[63] Barham has played or collaborated with a number of other significant figures in the entertainment industry, including Elton John, André Previn, Roger Daltrey, Gene Pitney and Badfinger.
[66] Late that year, as part of an initiative by Inscribe, Barham worked with Newcastle College in the north-east of England on a recording of Purvis's song "Sail Away", for release as a single to benefit Cancer Research UK.