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Early in director Laurent Bouzereau’s “Music by John Williams” documentary (streaming November 1 on Disney+), Steven Spielberg explains that he was worried about the demise of orchestral film scoring in the early ’70s while embarking on his directing career. He was determined that this emotionally stirring, if anachronistic, format would not die on his watch, so he hired John Williams to score his first theatrical feature, “The Sugarland Express” (1974).

Williams (who caught the director’s attention in 1969 with “The Reivers”) surprised Spielberg with an intimate harmonica solo (played by Toots Thielmans) that helped elevate the movie in a way he didn’t expect. Thus began the greatest director-composer collaboration in the history of movies, with Spielberg making 29 films with Williams and admitting that the composer has been indispensable to each and every one of them.

But it was their second film together, “Jaws” (1975), that propelled their careers. With two unforgettable...

From the deep, quickening heartbeat of “Jaws” to the astral opening blast of “Star Wars,” the music of John Williams not only earns its place among the most iconic film scores of all time, but it also proves memorable enough to carry with us out of the cinema. So effective are his themes that to hum just a few notes of a Williams score is to be caught up in the same emotions you felt gazing up at the big screen in the first place, watching Superman take flight over Manhattan or Elliott and E.T. bicycle across the moon.

At age 92, the maestro has received no shortage of accolades — from institutions, admirers and his peers in the Academy — and yet, Williams has long resisted requests to turn the cameras around on him. “Music by John Williams” does just that, featuring extensive interviews with the composer, plus glowing endorsements from...

In one of this year’s climaxes at the Tribeca Festival, Steven Spielberg showed off his first major studio theatrical release, Sugarland Express, which celebrates 50 years.

“You’re the first audience to ever see Sugarland Express in 50 years,” joked the 3x Oscar-winning filmmaker at the packed Bmcc screening in the lower west side of Manhattan.

How’s that? Spielberg said Universal pulled the movie out of theaters after two weeks as no one went to see it despite good reviews. The movie repped his first big screen release after cutting his teeth as a TV director, and it preceded his work on 1975’s Jaws, the blockbuster that would give definition to the word tentpole.

Sugarland Express failed at the box office per Spielberg, as audiences wanted to see a lighthearted Goldie Hawn in the movie, not to mention, it had a tragic ending.

Here are some of the memories Spielberg...

Jack White is showing off his acting chops.

The musician is the latest addition to legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese’s next film “Killers of The Flower Moon”. Randall Poster revealed the casting choice when he appeared on Brian Koppelman’s “The Moment” podcast.

Read More: Jack White Shares Heartfelt Tribute To Loretta Lynn: ‘Like A Mother Figure To Me’

Jason Isbell had already been announced as part of the film, but to Koppelman’s surprise, the famous singer wouldn’t be performing music in the film.

“Yeah, he’s terrific in it. Jason Isbell, Jack White, uhh, oh, my god, who’s [that] famous blues harpist, older cat, it’s not Toots Thielemans — anyhow, there’s like four musicians in the movie that don’t play music,” said the music supervisor.

Read More: Jack White ‘Surprised’ His Wife With Onstage Marriage: ‘I Figured It Was A Good Time’

It won...

When Hal Willner died earlier this week after experiencing symptoms consistent with the coronavirus, the music producer, Saturday Night Live music supervisor and connoisseur of all things left-field and eccentric left behind more than just a series of offbeat and acclaimed tribute albums. Those collections mixed and matched everyone from Tom Waits and Keith Richards to Sun Ra, the Replacements and Sting. Willner also nurtured deep friendships that resulted from those collaborations, including with Elvis Costello (who called him “my dear friend”) and Bono (who described him as “a gigantic...

Sean Wilson Mar 16, 2017

From Total Recall and RoboCop through to Turkish Delight and Flesh+Blood, we look at the musical scores of Paul Verhoeven films...

The Netherlands' arch-provocateur and filmmaker extraordinaire Paul Verhoeven is back in cinemas right now with Elle. A characteristically confrontational and provocative thriller, it spins a rape-revenge storyline into a mordantly funny, blackly comic and off-kilter odyssey, and has garnered an Oscar nomination for extraordinary lead Isabelle Huppert in the process.

See related The Maze Runner 3: Dylan O’Brien seriously injured on set Maze Runner 3 release now delayed, Dylan O’Brien still not back

It's exactly what we've come to expect from a veteran director who's done it all, having made jaws drop in both Europe and Hollywood - but beneath Verhoeven's love of excess and shock tactics lurks real artistry, and nowhere is this more evident than in the remarkable run of film scores...

Toots Thielemans, the jazz harmonica virtuoso best known for playing the theme to the iconic children's television series Sesame Street, has died at age 94.

The Associated Press reports that he died in his sleep at a Belgian hospital, where he had been recovering from injuries he sustained in a fall last month. He had a familiar presence at international musical festivals for decades, until he retired from live performance in 2014.

Throughout a career that spanned over seven decades, Thielemans worked with jazz masters including Benny Goodman, Charlie Parker, and Ella Fitzgerald – as well as contemporary electric fusion artists like Jaco Pastorius and Pat Metheny.

Toots Thielemans, the jazz harmonica virtuoso best known for playing the theme to the iconic children's television series Sesame Street, has died at age 94. The Associated Press reports that he died in his sleep at a Belgian hospital, where he had been recovering from injuries he sustained in a fall last month. He had a familiar presence at international musical festivals for decades, until he retired from live performance in 2014. Throughout a career that spanned over seven decades, Thielemans worked with jazz masters including Benny Goodman, Charlie Parker, and Ella Fitzgerald - as well as contemporary electric fusion artists like Jaco Pastorius and Pat Metheny.

For an artist whose practice is predicated on the somewhat subversive, it's no surprise that Peter Coffin would stack a playlist with Miles Davis and Kraftwerk and Tonto's Expanding Headband. "I don't have anything interesting or quotable to say about the songs I sent,” he wrote, somewhat teasingly, "They inspire different moods." Coffins's works do, too — whether with his outdoor Cloud installations or oversize taxidermy animal sculptures or slow-motion videos. For those times when you don’t know where you want to go but want the journey to inspire you, listen up.Terry Riley, "In the Summer" Miles Davis, "Little Church" Toots Thielemans, "Love Theme From 'The Getaway' Yesterday & Today" Kraftwerk, "Ananas Symphonie (pineapple symphony)" David Crosby, "Laughing" Tonto's Expanding Headband, "Riversong" Lifetones, "Good Side" Carlos Santana & John McLaughlin, "Naima" Grace Jones, "The Fashion Show" Was (not Was), "Wheel Me Out"...

Getty The audience at a Central Park Summerstage event earlier this month.

As Hurricane Irene was expected to move north toward the greater New York area by the weekend, prompting the planned shutdown of the city’s mass-transit system, many cultural organizations went ahead and canceled events that were scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.

The Dave Matthews Band Caravan was scheduled to play Governors Island, with a lineup that included The Roots, Josh Ritter, Dave Matthews Band, and Gogol Bordello.

Just a few days after the release of Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing (as well as, albeit unofficially, his film Killer’s Kiss), as part of the Criterion Collection, fellow Criterion release, Spartacus, appears to be getting yet another day in the sunshine.

Turner Classic Movies and the American Film Institute have announced that they will be teaming up to launch a new series of screenings, entitled Quarterly Specials: TCM Presents: AFI’s Master Class –The Art Of Collaboration. As part of this series, launching on November 15, and will look at the collaboration between John Williams and director Steven Spielberg.

Now, where does Spartacus come in, you may be asking? Well, both Williams and Spielberg have cited Kubrick and the work of his composer Alex North, as influential on their careers. The film will be a part of the night in a special presentation.

It goes without saying that Spartacus...

Longtime Collaborators Steven Spielberg and John Williams to be Honored in First Special, Premiering Nov. 15

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) and the American Film Institute (AFI) are teaming up for an extraordinary series of quarterly specials exploring some of the greatest artistic collaborations in film today. TCM Presents: AFI.s Master Class . The Art of Collaboration will launch Tuesday, Nov. 15, with an in-depth, one-hour special focusing on the 40-year collaboration between filmmaker Steven Spielberg and composer John Williams. Upcoming specials in the series will be announced later.

.It is understood that film is a collaborative art, but the enormously successful artists featured in these specials have taken collaboration to its highest level,. said Michael Wright, executive vice president, head of programming for TCM, TNT and TBS. .We are enormously proud to be working with the American Film Institute on this vital project, which will capture the vision and processes of artists...

Our detailed look back over the non-Bond scores of John Barry continues with a look at his work between the years 1968 to 1979…

In the third part of our John Barry retrospective, we enter the late 60s and a surge of activity that would typify the composer’s output for nearly two decades. Despite the exacting nature of his commissions, he continued to build on his reputation with a succession of quality scores that stockpiled brilliant and unexpected surprises on top of unprecedented new ground. But all the while, he continued to strive for authenticity of arrangement and sincerity of expression. This phase demonstrates his broadening outlook but also reflects, in a profound way, the diversity of his musical influences.

His early output took inspiration from both the rhythm and blues of The Barry Seven and the popular rhythms of the time, such as Gene Vincent and American guitarist Duane Eddy,...

Our detailed look back over the non-Bond scores of John Barry continues with a look at his work between the years 1968 to 1979…

In the third part of our John Barry retrospective, we enter the late 60s and a surge of activity that would typify the composer’s output for nearly two decades. Despite the exacting nature of his commissions, he continued to build on his reputation with a succession of quality scores that stockpiled brilliant and unexpected surprises on top of unprecedented new ground. But all the while, he continued to strive for authenticity of arrangement and sincerity of expression. This phase demonstrates his broadening outlook but also reflects, in a profound way, the diversity of his musical influences.

His early output took inspiration from both the rhythm and blues of The Barry Seven and the popular rhythms of the time, such as Gene Vincent and American guitarist Duane Eddy,...

The most compelling aspect of the master class that Michael Feinstein recently taught at Five Towns College in Dix Hills, N.Y., was that by the time the two hours had elapsed, he had encountered—and made strides to correct—just about every problem faced by not only new but seasoned singers.Affable and amusing, as he always is on the bandstand, and consistently complimentary, Feinstein was there to help shape up eight wannabes taking a course taught by the singer La Tanya Hall, who performed behind him during his annual Christmas show at the New York club that bears his name, Feinstein's at Loews Regency. As this observer can attest, Feinstein was right to praise the participants for the quality of their voices and was also right in his introductory remarks to say he was there to assess their "truth in expressing the music."Awarded an honorary doctorate in...