Tommy Johnson Jaws Story
(from an interview with Steve Oberheu for TubaNews)
I guess one of the most famous/infamous jobs I’ve done 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 and headed towards Fox there was a big traffic jam, and I was 30 minutes late to the call. I walked in, and John Williams was on the podium. I realized I had come 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 John Williams was watching me with anticipation. Basically, they were 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, I was thinking about what was happening at the junior high school while I was 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 thoughts were 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.” 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.”
Besides, I was thinking about what was happening at the junior high school while I was 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 thoughts were 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.” 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.”
Take a listen below and here's another classic Tommy Tale.