Final Thesis - John Williams - ScholarsArchive at Oregon State ...

Influences
Early Career Influences
As discussed in the biography section, jazz played a large part in John
Williams’ early life and career. His father was a drummer for the Raymond Scott
Quintet where he was able to contribute a unique percussive style that created a
foundation for many o the band’s compositions. He also creatively added cowbell,
wood block, and tuned percussion in addition to the regular jazz drum and cymbal
setup ("Johnny Williams (Drummer)"). It is possible that growing up around his
father’s influence caused John Williams to seek jazz out as a creative outlet and
means to pay for school while attending Juilliard. Jazz also permeates some of his
later scores, such as the “Cantina Band” song anomaly in Star Wars and the retro-
60s sound of the score for Catch Me If You Can. In a funny anecdotal story told by
Williams, he originally saw the “Cantina” scene without music, but with strange
looking creatures playing instruments. Because no similar piece had been written
like that in the film, he wasn’t sure how to approach the style, whether it is
electronic, futuristic, etc. George Lucas actually came up with the idea of making it a
futuristic sounding Benny Goodman swing band. So when Williams scored the piece
with his acoustic instruments he purposely had some of them slightly out of tune
and a little off tempo to make it seem as if the aliens were trying to recreate a piece
of human music (Byrd).
Another influence on his early career was his tutoring from Italian composer
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, who also taught Jerry Goldsmith and Marty Paich. He
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