aviazn

Fun interview. Is this the first time in history that an interviewer tells the "they're all dead" story to Williams? 😅
 
Prompting him with the film clips was a nice interview technique. I don't know that I've ever heard him say he wrote Luke's Theme from Star Wars "out of desperation". I dream about someone one day doing an interview with him where they give him a piano and just ask him all sorts of technical questions.
 
Also was he about to drop an f-bomb? I heard: "Music just means so much more to me every passing day. You just wish you could share that with people — how fffuu…cky we are to be working in something that you truly love."
 
EDIT: OK, listening again, I think he started to say “fortunate” and then shifted mid-word to “lucky”. With headphones, I hear “ffflucky” But the way it comes out, I totally thought he was going to say “how fucking lucky we are,” and in my mind, I think I will remember it that way. 🥹

Wow, another appearance, a full episode on Chris Wallace’s show. Streaming now on HBO Max! Airing on CNN Sunday night. This is really a full-court press.
 
Online story here:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/03/entertainment/john-williams-indiana-jones/index.html
 
 

Fun interview. Is this the first time in history that an interviewer tells the "they're all dead" story to Williams? 😅
 
Prompting him with the film clips was a nice interview technique. I don't know that I've ever heard him say he wrote Luke's Theme from Star Wars "out of desperation". I dream about someone one day doing an interview with him where they give him a piano and just ask him all sorts of technical questions.
 
Also was he about to drop an f-bomb? I heard: "Music just means so much more to me every passing day. You just wish you could share that with people — how fffuu…cky we are to be working in something that you truly love."
 
EDIT: OK, listening again, I think he started to say “fortunate” and then shifted mid-word to “lucky”. With headphones, I hear “ffflucky” But the way it comes out, I totally thought he was going to say “how fucking lucky we are,” and in my mind, I think I will remember it that way. 🥹

Wow, another appearance, a full episode on Chris Wallace’s show. Streaming now on HBO Max! Airing on CNN Sunday night. This is really a full-court press.
 
Online story here:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/03/entertainment/john-williams-indiana-jones/index.html
 
 

Wow, another appearance, a full episode on Chris Wallace’s show. Streaming now on HBO Max! Airing on CNN Sunday night. This is really a full-court press.
 
Online story here:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/03/entertainment/john-williams-indiana-jones/index.html
 
 

Little snippet here... Spielberg is many things, but ....
 
 

Very few artists have been in a position to say something like this:

Fun interview. Is this the first time in history that an interviewer tells the "they're all dead" story to Williams? 😅
 
Prompting him with the film clips was a nice interview technique. I don't know that I've ever heard him say he wrote Luke's Theme from Star Wars "out of desperation". I dream about someone one day doing an interview with him where they give him a piano and just ask him all sorts of technical questions.
 
Also was he about to drop an f-bomb? I heard: "Music just means so much more to me every passing day. You just wish you could share that with people — how fffuu…cky we are to be working in something that you truly love."
 
EDIT: OK, listening again, I think he started to say “fortunate” and then shifted mid-word to “lucky”. With headphones, I hear “ffflucky” But the way it comes out, I totally thought he was going to say “how fucking lucky we are,” and in my mind, I think I will remember it that way. 🥹

Wow, another appearance, a full episode on Chris Wallace’s show. Streaming now on HBO Max! Airing on CNN Sunday night. This is really a full-court press.
 
Online story here:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/03/entertainment/john-williams-indiana-jones/index.html
 
 

Wow, another appearance, a full episode on Chris Wallace’s show. Streaming now on HBO Max! Airing on CNN Sunday night. This is really a full-court press.
 
Online story here:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/03/entertainment/john-williams-indiana-jones/index.html
 
 

Nice to see an official confirmation of Out to Sea for the end of Fabelmans.  

Seems like that'd be a last-ditch thing that he'd only do if there wasn't enough room for the full OST and they didn't want to add another disc.
 
 
Boy, you weren't kidding!
 
 
 
FlagParade+DuneSeaSpecial.mp3

Agreed on all points. I would love if he also incorporated jazz elements into this concerto (jazz rhythms, progressions, colors…). Several of us here have hoped for awhile he would reach back into his jazz roots more often.

The Flag Parade —> Cantina Band #2.
 
Try it.

The Flag Parade —> Cantina Band #2.
 
Try it.

The Flag Parade —> Cantina Band #2.
 
Try it.

Oh September 2 is a Saturday, and I'm not too far away in Seoul. No idea how hard tickets will be to get, but I'll try! and I'm not working the week before. 

Usually, when I listened to Star Wars, I even skip the main title.

The lack of recognition of the influence of jazz on Williams' voice always rankles me. This recent critical reappraisal of his work is great, as are his appearances with the great European orchestras. But seeking to place him in the pantheon of the European classical tradition while ignoring his jazz background only gets you half the story. It's the jazz imprint on his harmonic and rhythmic language and how he brought that into an orchestral idiom that sets him apart from his peers.
 
Maybe this is a bit grandiose, but I think of Williams as a historic, generational figure at the intersection of two musical traditions from across the world that were brought together in the US through an array of global political and socioeconomic forces — emigration, capitalism, colonialism, slavery, Nazism, abolitionism, etc. Of course, these musical traditions were intermixing for many decades before Williams, but he played no small part in how they combined to create today's modern musical landscape. That, I think, is a much more interesting and significant legacy than simply inheriting the pop mantle of Korngold and Wagner. But obviously, jazz remains a blind spot of classical music critics. You can find a lot more about Williams' jazz roots from music theory geeks on YouTube than classical critics at prestige publications.

Yes, so much of his thematic development sounds like improvisation. The way he uses syncopation to generate energy, or whenever he goes off on those long string passages in scores like War Horse and The Terminal I can hear him improvising. The voicing are even those of a jazz pianist, even if the harmonies are not. Being literate in jazz is vital to understanding JW.

The lack of recognition of the influence of jazz on Williams' voice always rankles me. This recent critical reappraisal of his work is great, as are his appearances with the great European orchestras. But seeking to place him in the pantheon of the European classical tradition while ignoring his jazz background only gets you half the story. It's the jazz imprint on his harmonic and rhythmic language and how he brought that into an orchestral idiom that sets him apart from his peers.
 
Maybe this is a bit grandiose, but I think of Williams as a historic, generational figure at the intersection of two musical traditions from across the world that were brought together in the US through an array of global political and socioeconomic forces — emigration, capitalism, colonialism, slavery, Nazism, abolitionism, etc. Of course, these musical traditions were intermixing for many decades before Williams, but he played no small part in how they combined to create today's modern musical landscape. That, I think, is a much more interesting and significant legacy than simply inheriting the pop mantle of Korngold and Wagner. But obviously, jazz remains a blind spot of classical music critics. You can find a lot more about Williams' jazz roots from music theory geeks on YouTube than classical critics at prestige publications.

The lack of recognition of the influence of jazz on Williams' voice always rankles me. This recent critical reappraisal of his work is great, as are his appearances with the great European orchestras. But seeking to place him in the pantheon of the European classical tradition while ignoring his jazz background only gets you half the story. It's the jazz imprint on his harmonic and rhythmic language and how he brought that into an orchestral idiom that sets him apart from his peers.
 
Maybe this is a bit grandiose, but I think of Williams as a historic, generational figure at the intersection of two musical traditions from across the world that were brought together in the US through an array of global political and socioeconomic forces — emigration, capitalism, colonialism, slavery, Nazism, abolitionism, etc. Of course, these musical traditions were intermixing for many decades before Williams, but he played no small part in how they combined to create today's modern musical landscape. That, I think, is a much more interesting and significant legacy than simply inheriting the pop mantle of Korngold and Wagner. But obviously, jazz remains a blind spot of classical music critics. You can find a lot more about Williams' jazz roots from music theory geeks on YouTube than classical critics at prestige publications.

The lack of recognition of the influence of jazz on Williams' voice always rankles me. This recent critical reappraisal of his work is great, as are his appearances with the great European orchestras. But seeking to place him in the pantheon of the European classical tradition while ignoring his jazz background only gets you half the story. It's the jazz imprint on his harmonic and rhythmic language and how he brought that into an orchestral idiom that sets him apart from his peers.
 
Maybe this is a bit grandiose, but I think of Williams as a historic, generational figure at the intersection of two musical traditions from across the world that were brought together in the US through an array of global political and socioeconomic forces — emigration, capitalism, colonialism, slavery, Nazism, abolitionism, etc. Of course, these musical traditions were intermixing for many decades before Williams, but he played no small part in how they combined to create today's modern musical landscape. That, I think, is a much more interesting and significant legacy than simply inheriting the pop mantle of Korngold and Wagner. But obviously, jazz remains a blind spot of classical music critics. You can find a lot more about Williams' jazz roots from music theory geeks on YouTube than classical critics at prestige publications.

The Complete Recording Sessions of Every John Williams Film Score (1954–2049): Liner Notes

The only thing I've read is that when JW stayed at a hotel for recording in London, he made sure there was a piano in his hotel suite so he could keep working.