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Tommy Johnson - R.I.P. -- player of one of the most famous tuba riffs ever
Tommy Johnson; his tuba conveyed peril in 'Jaws'
By Claire Noland, Los Angeles Times | November 3, 2006
LOS ANGELES -- The opening notes, low and ominous, send a chill up the spine of anyone sitting in a darkened theater. The great white shark is near, cutting through the water in pursuit of its prey.
John Williams composed the music and the mounting tension it conveys for the soundtrack of the movie "Jaws."
Tuba player Tommy Johnson lifted those relentlessly accelerating notes off the page, giving voice to the shark while bringing terror to the movie audience.
A "first call" studio musician who played tuba on thousands of film scores over nearly 50 years, Mr. Johnson died Oct. 16 from complications of cancer and kidney failure at the University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center, said his wife, Patricia. He was 71 and had been working until a few weeks before his death.
The first movie Mr. Johnson played on was "Al Capone," with a score by David Raksin. That 1959 film was followed by a seemingly endless list highlighted by "The Godfather," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," the "Indiana Jones" trilogy, the "Star Trek" movie series, "The Lion King," "Titanic," and "The Thin Red Line."
But it was "Jaws" in 1975 that best showcased his film work.
"What I had in mind were the lower instruments of the orchestra, those capable of plunging the sonic depths . . . that would represent the shark in music," Williams said Tuesday. "The tuba was one of the instruments that could create that atmosphere. It's a difficult tuba part, and Tommy played it with great facility and ease. . . . He was an outstanding instrumentalist."
Mr. Johnson called "Jaws" his most memorable experience in the recording studio. Stuck in traffic on Interstate 405 during a rainstorm, he arrived late to the session. "When you're late like that, you're just really all upset," Mr. Johnson recalled in a 2004 interview with tubanews.com. "So as I sat down and barely got the mouthpiece in the tuba I happened to open the book, and the first cue is this big long tuba solo."
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