Tommy Johnson (session musician)
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Tommy Johnson (b. January 7, 1935, d. October 16, 2006, Los Angeles, California) was an orchestral tuba player. He performed on more than 2,000 film soundtracks, most notably John Williams' Jaws score, in which he played a high-register tuba solo as the melodic theme for the shark.
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[edit] Biography
He was born John Thomas Johnson in Los Angeles to a tailor and his wife. Johnson had a musical upbringing as his father was a baritone soloist in the choir at the Angelus Temple in Echo Park.
He attended the University of Southern California, studying under Robert Marsteller. He received a bachelor's degree in music in 1956. He played on his first film in 1958, the score for Al Capone. Films included Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Godfather, the Indiana Jones series, the Star Trek movie series, The Lion King, Titanic, The Thin Red Line, The Matrix, Forrest Gump, Air Force One, Back to the Future, A Bug's Life and Lethal Weapon.
The Jaws solo was written in an extremely high range for the tuba. In a 2004 interview with Tubanews.com, Johnson said he asked composer John Williams why he didn't write the solo for the French horn, an instrument better suited for the register. Williams' response was, "Well, I wanted something that was in that register but I wanted it to sound a little more threatening."<ref>A conversation with Tommy Johnson, Tubanews.com, 2004 (retrieved on December 2, 2006).</ref>
Johnson performed as tuba soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, the Pasadena Symphony, the San Fernando Valley Symphony, the L.A. Pops Orchestra, the Henry Mancini Orchestra, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, the Academy Awards Orchestra, USC Wind Ensemble and the Los Angeles Tuba Quartet. His recordings include The Manhattan Transfer Meets Tubby the Tuba, Partita for Brass Quintet and Tape and Jean-Pierre Rampal Plays Scott Joplin.
He also taught music to junior high school students in the Los Angeles Unified School District for nearly 20 years, but for most of his career, he taught advanced tuba players individually and at USC and UCLA. Among his students were Norm Pearson of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Alan Baer of the New York Philharmonic and Gene Pokorny of the Chicago Symphony. He played many concerts and sessions with Roger Bobo, and the two were close friends.
[edit] Personal life
He was married to Patricia Johnson, a fellow music student from USC. She plays violin in the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. The couple had four children.
Johnson died from complications of cancer and kidney failure at UCLA Medical Center. He had been working until a few weeks before his death.
[edit] References
- Noland, Claire. October 25, 2006. Tommy Johnson, 71; noted tuba player's movie work boosted the tension in 'Jaws', Los Angeles Times (retrieved from registration-only site on December 2, 2006).
- In memoriam, UCLA Today Online (retrieved on December 2, 2006).
[edit] Notes
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