Star Wars is famous for its music. The original scores by John Williams have helped define the film series. The music used in scenes of the nine Star Wars movies has also made the films more memorable and popular.
The music in the Cantina on Tatooine in Star Wars: A New Hope is a great example.
Most of us remember the repetitive trumpet/clarinet/piano sounds of the Cantina Band, this music helped make the scene and movie stand out as original and innovative.
What kind of music does the Cantina Band play?
The music they play is unique. It is called jizz and was created especially for the film, but it is also based on real-word music and instruments. The Cantina Band members are likewise distinctive yet familiar.
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What Music Does the Cantina Band Play?
The song that audiences hear in the Cantina scene is referred to as the “Cantina Band Song” by John Williams. George Lucas had asked Williams to compose “echo swing music” for this scene.
John Williams arranged for jazz musicians to play the music. These musicians played a range of instruments that included the trumpet, clarinet, piano, and a Caribbean steel drum.
This scene was only a small part of what John Williams has done for the Star Wars film series.
Williams is the creator of the scores for all nine feature films, which are among the most widely known music in modern movies.
For these scores, Williams uses a symphony orchestra and a range of recurring musical themes to enhance characters and plot lines.
The Cantina Band became very popular with Star Wars fans partly because of the music they played.
So, Lucas and Williams made a similar move in Return of the Jedi. The Max Rebo Band played at Jabba the Hutt’s palace in ROTJ, playing a song called “Lapti Nek” that had a disco influence.
In A New Hope, the Cantina band is a group of Bith aliens called “Figrin D’an and the Modal Nodes.” They play a genre of music called “jizz.”
About Jizz
Jizz is a genre of music within the Star Wars universe that Wookieepedia describes as upbeat and swinging.
It is a jazz-inspired genre that was first performed by Figrin D’an and the Modal Nodes, or The Cantina Band.
Jizz is influenced by jazz and gathers its sound from a similar range of instruments.
For example, Bass viol, or a double bass, is a jazz instrument that is used in jizz. The gasan string drum and kloo horn are unique to the movie, but have similar sounds as a jazz drum and clarinet.
The Kloo horn’s S-shaped mouthpiece extends into its unique body and allows players to use their hands to adjust the tone and pitch. It helps provide the memorable structure of the Cantina Band song.
The term jizz-wailer, used to refer to such musicians, originated in 1983 in the Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi novel by James Kahn.
Yet the term jizz as a musical style was not circulated until the book Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina in 1995.
Subgenres of jizz are also part of the Star Wars universe. For example, jizz-wail is depicted as an offshoot of jizz and was performed in the capital of Euceron during the Galactic Games of 26 BBY.
Jizz is thus a unique blend of music, but it is based mainly on jazz.
The Cantina Band is most associated with jizz, but there are other jizz bands, such as Bobolo Baker’s All-Bith Band and Evar Orbus and His Galactic Jizz-Wailers.
Jizz is a musical style that also has a distinctive yet recognizable sound. The Cantina Band made the music familiar to fans, and these musicians are likewise unique and familiar.
Cantina Band Members
The Cantina Band members are a memorable set of characters. The bandleader, Figrin D’an, is described as “overbearing and compulsive.”
Figrin D’an is a male Bith musician and frontman who mainly plays the Kloo horn, but is known to be talented and can play a range of instruments, including the Gasan string drum.
His talents reflect a versatility similar to jazz musicians like Miles Davis or Wynton Marsalis.
Although the Modal Nodes band members did change over the years, they did maintain at least five permanent performers at any given time. Here are the top five members.
Doikk Na’ts is one of those permanent members. He is a male Bith who played the Dorenian Beshniquel. He has been described as having a “highly evolved” section of his brain and being “one of the more level-headed members of the band.”
The male Bith musician Ickabel G’ont played the Double Jocimer. He was also highly intelligent and significantly contributed to the band.
Lirin Car’n is the second Kloo horn player in the band. He likewise had high intelligence and could analyze music very effectively.
Nalan Cheel played the bandfill instrument that has mounted horn bells. He is also very talented and central to the band’s sound.
The fifth main player was Sun’il Ei’de, who played the drums and was on stage when the band played their main song in A New Hope.
Collectively, these and other members fill out the sound of the band in a way that corresponds with how jazz is played. These key members provide the chorus and harmony that give structure to the music.
The Cantina Band’s biggest hit is called “Mad About Me.” This is the upbeat song we hear when Luke Skywalker and Ben Kenobi are in the Chalmun’s Spaceport Cantina in Mos Eisley, Tatooine.
The Cantina band did gain popularity, but mainly performed in the Outer Rim Territories. Hence, they did not have an extensive touring schedule, but were popular on a local level.
The Music of the Cantina Band
The Cantina Band plays a music genre called jizz, which is primarily based in jazz. The sounds and structure of jizz are unique, but are considerably influenced by music from planet Earth.
The Cantina Band also has distinctive yet recognizable members. As the band leader, Figrin D’an is comparable to well-known jazz musicians. The band members take on unique yet supportive roles that also mimic jazz bands.
With its otherworldly music and characters, Star Wars provides us with unique and interesting versions of the real world.