Heeeeere's Doc

Heeeeere's Doc!
"Tonight Show" Bandleader Comes To The Forum

by Benjy Eisen

“I don’t know where it ends. I don’t see an end in sight right now,” says Doc Severinsen, defiantly, after I ask him if he foresees a final chapter to his five-decade, storybook career. “I just enjoy the process of making the music. I think one thing you learn as you go along in life is to live for the moment. Stop worrying about what happened before or what’s going to happen five minutes from now. Just enjoy this moment.”

For 30 years that moment was shared in the spotlight with late-night legend Johnny Carson, when Doc was leader of The Tonight Show Band. Before that, Doc had toured with jazz greats Tommy Dorsey and Benny Goodman in their respective bands. Joining the NBC television network as a staff musician in 1949, Doc was eventually assigned to “The Tonight Show,” where he was assistant leader to Skitch Henderson. With Henderson’s unexplained departure in 1967, Doc became the bandleader, effectively making The Tonight Show Band his band. In over 50 years of musical success, including a 1987 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Doc still says the greatest thrill came on “the first day that I became the leader of The Tonight Show Band, and I was on my own — it was ‘Doc Severinsen and The Tonight Show Band.’ That first show had to have been without a doubt challenging, exciting, scary and in the long run, happy.”

In 1992, Johnny Carson retired, and his successor, Jay Leno, brought in a new band (led by Branford Marsalis). Doc’s immediate plan was “to get in a bus and go on a big band tour,” taking The Tonight Show Band with him. Within one week of Carson’s departure, the renamed Doc Severinsen and His Big Band departed for the open road. “It’s 10 years later, and we’re still doing it,” he says proudly.

On the television show, Doc was usually confined to playing snippets of songs as introductions for talk show guests or to providing interludes to and from the commercials. Sometimes, he’d accompany the musical guests for the evening (“The Allman Brothers would come on the show and say, ‘Let’s do something with the big band.’ And we would.”). Always ready with a few bars from one song or another, Doc covered thousands of songs, in virtually every style imaginable. And then there were the outfits — flashy, loud, eccentric apparel that he became known for. While the television show is gone, the outfits are not. “I’m an irreverent kind of person, and sometimes I dress that way,” Doc explains. “And I think that people are coming in to see a show, what does it hurt to put on some clothes that are part of the show?”

Doc takes the Big Band out about twice a year for short tours that usually last less than two weeks. Beyond that, the members of the band (which includes Tonight Show members Ed Shaughnessy on drums, Bill Perkins on baritone sax, Ernie Watts on tenor sax, and Snooky Young and Conte Candoli on trumpet) all have musical pursuits of their own. As for Doc, he spends his time away from the Big Band working with orchestras. He is Principal Pops Conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra, as well as the symphony orchestras of Milwaukee, Phoenix, and Colorado.

“I’m at a point in life where I don’t have to do things that I don’t want to do,” he says. “I go where I want to go, and I play the music I want to play with the people I want to play it with.”

As for his accolades and recognition, Doc says he’s appreciative, but “when you’re a trumpet player, you’re challenged every day. It’s not an easy instrument. It’s very physical, very demanding, and I pretty much live my life like, ‘Well what kind of day did I have on the trumpet today?’ And beyond that I don’t much care.”

Over 30 albums, one Grammy Award, and hundreds of broadcasts, sold-out concerts, and filled concert halls, Doc Severinsen is known more for his work as a bandleader, trumpet player, and conductor than he is for any one style of music.

“Music changes every day,” he says, reflecting on fad and radio music that has come and gone since he first started playing. That statement can also be applied to the evolution in Doc’s own playing. His Big Band is considered a jazz outfit, yet for the past few years Doc has been exploring blues within the context of a big band ensemble (such as swing and jump jive). “When we did a blues album called Swinging The Blues, I couldn’t help but notice how much I was enjoying playing big band blues. It’s very earthy and very visceral. And it appeals to me.”

On “The Tonight Show” he had to be ready to play any song from any genre. Taking the band on the road, he leads them through material “that fits the style of big bands — standard tunes, jazz tunes, and lots of blues.”

Doc Severinsen and His Big Band will be performing at The Forum in Harrisburg on Sunday, November 25. Tickets are available at the Whitaker Center Box Office or by calling 214-ARTS.