Tommy Johnson & Jaws

[Z-Tuba Dude]

Does anyone know what horn Tommy Johnson used for the Jaws solo? F?….CC?….Other?

[circusboy]

He used a modified Yamaha F tuba. He had LA brass maker Robb Stewart modify the horn to act as a compensating F/CC double tuba to better handle the specific requirements of the part.

He later had a second Yamaha F tuba modified in the same way, which became his primary studio horn.

[Z-Tuba Dude]

[quote=circusboy post_id=732062 time=1783191219 user_id=3234]
He used a modified Yamaha F tuba. He had LA brass maker Robb Stewart modify the horn to act as a compensating F/CC double tuba to better handle the specific requirements of the part.

He later had a second Yamaha F tuba modified in the same way, which became his primary studio horn.
[/quote]

Thanks, that is helpful.

I have been asked to play it, and I am deciding what horn to use.

[rodmathews]

It definitely wasn’t a Yamaha. Those didn’t exist when Jaws was recorded.

He most likely used a small Mirafone CC, perhaps a 184 or 185. Impossible that it was a Yamaha.

[tclements]

I thought it was his 180-5U F.

[Bill Troiano]

Hi all! It’s been a while. I don’t think I dreamt this, but I either heard it, or read it in an older ITEA Journal. Tommy also held a job as a HS band director. He had band last period and had an arrangement with the principal that if he got a call for a studio gig that they would hire a sub for his band period. This day, he had the call for the Jaws gig (he didn’t know what he would be playing in advance). The sub didn’t show, so the principal covered his band period. Tommy left late for the gig, drove in traffic and pouring rain and arrived late. He only had his 186 with him and so that’s what he used for the Jaws recording. The 2nd take is what we hear in the soundtrack.

[circusboy]

Forgive me. I think Bill Troiano's right. I've heard that story, too.

[I got the Yamaha story from the Internet. Who knew the Internet could be wrong?! ]

[joshwirt]

I don’t know about the instrument, but I asked Malcolm McNabb about that session and he confirmed Tommy ran in late, soaking wet and absolutely crushed the solo with zero warmup. Absolute legend!!

[tclements]

I was studying with Tommy at the time. This is what I got out of his telling the story:
1 - He was running late (LA traffic)
2 - He played it on the 180
3 - After several takes, they ended up taking the first take, no warm up.

i COULD be wrong......

[poomshanka]

From an interview with Steve Oberheu:

SO: What have been some of your most famous/infamous jobs you’ve done?

TJ: I guess the one that sticks out the most in my mind is Jaws. First of all, that day I was late to the studio because—as you know, I taught public school for many years and mixed that in with studio work—this was one of those days it was raining and I was waiting for a substitute teacher to arrive. Because of the rain, the substitute teacher was late so I had to wait longer than I wanted to. By the time I got to the 405 (Freeway) and headed towards Fox (studios), there was a big traffic jam so I was 30 minutes late to the call. I walked in, John Williams was on the podium, came in through the side door when I should have come in through the back door, I had to squirm my way through through the cello section to get back to the tuba (spot). The whole time he’s watching me with anticipation. Basically they’re just sort of waiting for me to get my tuba out. I very hurriedly got it out, I was really out of breath. When you’re late like that, you’re just really all upset. 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. And I can see him with his baton looking back like, “Are you ready?” And I haven’t even blown a note. I said, “Ok.” (laughter) He started in with the (bum-bum-bum-bum) and this tuba solo, (sings)…well, I played it really fine. In those days I had a lip that just responded immediately, I never had to warm up. I never believed in warming up anyway, so I didn’t. Being the age I was at that time, I was in really great shape.

Besides that, I was thinking about what was happening at the junior high school while I’m playing all this stuff. I had to leave before the substitute got there, had to call in another teacher who was not a music teacher just to hold down the fort because I said, “ I must leave now. I can’t wait any longer.” I was preoccupied with a little worry so my thought was not totally on the music…maybe that was good because I just nailed it every time. Didn’t have any trouble playing it. But later on I was thinking, “Hmmm…that could have been pretty hard.” Because I was only playing CC tuba (Mirafone 185) at the time and this solo kept recurring in almost every cue. I found out later that was the theme for the shark. I asked John Williams later why he wrote that so high for the tuba, why didn’t he write that for the french horns since it was in the perfect range for them? He said, “Well, I wanted something that was in that register but I wanted it to sound a little more threatening.”

SO: A lot of people listen to (the main theme from Jaws) and they think it’s a french horn. Then you tell them it’s a tuba and they give you that look like “What?! No it’s not!”

TJ: A few times later on, the french horns did join in on that theme, but mostly it was a solo part for tuba. He did that again in Jaws 2…but this time I was ready for him. By then I had gotten an F tuba and did Jaws 2 on that. In those days, they didn’t take the soundtrack to make an album, you had to re-record all the music again. When we re-recorded the music for Jaws, I borrowed a Mirafone F tuba that I used on that recording. But not on the soundtrack itself. I think it took us 3 days for the recording session (for the film), but when I found out we were going to re-record for the soundtrack, I went to Mirafone and picked out an F.

Gene Pokorny now owns Tommy's 185. His F tuba is owned by Paul Asimow, a CalTech professor who's now the organizer of the L.A. TubaChristmas.

[tclements]

I guess I was wrong. Mea Culpa....

[Tom Holtz]

That's what Tommy told us as well about the Jaws session at his masterclass at Arizona State back in the previous century. He also mentioned that not only was he was late, flustered, and dripping wet from the rain, but that he went to the back door of the big recording room like always, only to find that the orchestra contracted for Jaws was so big it was turned 90 degrees from how an orchestra would normally set up just to fit everyone in. Imagine being on full red alert, just wanting to get in the room and get your horn out, only to have to go back around to the side door to get to your seat, rainwater dripping off your gig bag all over the cellos on the way. Epic.

A commercial spot for the old BankAmericard company (before it was Visa) was another similar story. Walked in with his CC and looked for his chair in the back row. At least that day he arrived before the downbeat and wasn't dripping wet. He had trouble finding his chair because it was all the way up in front, next to the conductor, with the biggest mic in the studio hanging over it.

He had a bootleg cassette of the session (hey, previous century, people) and played it for us. It was a 27-second tuba concerto. The big lick went up to G above the staff. One rehearsal, one take, done.

[poomshanka]

If you haven't already seen it, here's a PDF of the program I put together for Tommy's memorial concert:

https://tommyjohnsontuba.com/images/tom ... rogram.pdf

Some good stories in there, to include the Jaws session.

[poomshanka]

And I had to dig back into the archives for the interview:

https://web.archive.org/web/20100721104 ... &Itemid=86

[Bill Troiano]

I was looking around the past 2 days trying to find the story that corroborated my TJ story. Thanks, Poomshanka. This is probably it, although I did get a couple of details wrong. Tommy said he used a 185 on the first movie. Also, I thought his principal covered for him so he could get to the session. I wish I got to meet and take some lessons from him. Remarkable man.

[Fritztuba]

Thanks, Dave. I was fortunate enough to have studied with Mr Johnson in my undergrad, and I, along with any other student who studied with him for several years, could write a book of his stories. I learned so much from him.