The ‘Doc’ is in town

Luis Pena

Legendary trumpeter and former “Tonight Show” music director Doc

Severinsen will be performing a holiday concert with the Pacific

Symphony Pops at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

Severinsen has been surrounded by music his entire life. His

father played the violin and wanted his son to follow in his

footsteps, but the younger Severinsen gravitated toward the trombone.

The only problem was that the small Oregon town of 600 that he lived

in didn’t have any trombones.

“The only other instrument in this little town that we lived in

that was available at all was an old trumpet some guy had in his

attic, so we bought that from him, and I’ve never been sorry,”

Severinsen said.

His father was a dentist, known to the community as “Doc.”

Severinsen was given the nickname “Little Doc,” which was later

shortened to “Doc.”

During World War II, Severinsen was in the Army. He joined an

unofficial band with some other troops, and he and his bandmates were

better than the official band, thus getting musical jobs and even

their own radio show. Severinsen started out with the “Tonight Show”

in 1962 as first trumpet, and later served as its director until

Johnny Carson retired from the show in 1992. Since then, he’s toured

the country with his Big Band, which is made up of the best players

from his “Tonight Show” days.

He won a Grammy Award in 1987 for best jazz instrumental

performance on an album that he did with the rest of the “Tonight

Show Band.”

When his stint on the “Tonight Show” ended, it left him with a

strange feeling, he said. “I figured that after six months, people

would have totally forgotten about me, and here it is, 11 years

later, and nothing has changed.”

One of Severinsen’s trademarks is the flamboyant outfits that he

still wears. He says that he became interested in the outrageous

outfits while he was growing up in Oregon because of the big cowboys

who would wear wild shirts. .

Severinsen plays with different symphonies across the country. He

was the principle pops conductor for the Pacific Symphony from 1986

to 1988.

You can do more with a symphony than just playing classical music,

he said.

“I think [playing with symphony orchestras is] an ideal way to

perform because you can do any kind of music that anybody ever

thought of,” Severinsen said.

Severinsen says that if he weren’t a musician, he probably would

have been in politics, because his Uncle Earl was a governor of

Oregon. “It’s not the money and it’s not the joy of being out there

in front of an audience and getting the applause and all of that,”

Severinsen said. “I think it’s just the music.”