Doc Checks in with Hot Jazz

Rick de Yampert
The Daytona Beach News-Journal
Friday, January 18, 2002

The most flamboyant thing at Doc Severinsen's Wednesday night concert wasn't his clothes. True, with his black-and-white checkered sports coat, lime green tie and yellow pants, the former "Tonight Show" trumpeter looked as if he had been dressed by a circus clown who had run away and joined NASCAR.

"Know why I wore this?" Doc asked the sparse crowd at Peabody Auditorium, after he had changed out of his orange sports coat during intermission. "That's right -- the Daytona 500. Arnold Schwarzenegger is going to pick me up and wave me at the finish line."

But the most flamboyant thing at the concert wasn't Doc's duds. It was Doc's music, and that of his ultra-tight and red-hot 15-piece big band. No wonder the sound system crashed during the next-to-last song -- Doc and crew must have scorched the wiring. They're one of the most dynamic, fiery big bands to hit town since Frank Sinatra brought his boys here about a half-decade ago.

If all you've heard Doc play is that snappy "Tonight Show" theme, then you haven't heard Doc. On a bluesy arrangement of "Stardust," Severinsen played with power, clarity and, most importantly, soul. He thus transformed the song into a perfectly slinky soundtrack for some old Humphrey Bogart detective film.

Introducing Louis Armstrong's "West End Blues," Doc noted how the master revolutionized jazz with the piece back in 1925, and then Severinsen paid the king a worthy homage in song. Doc was aided by an insanely innovative upright bass solo by Jennifer Leitham -- a solo as freaky as any "X-Files" monster. Yet her avant-garde playing shot the song into orbit rather than distorted its classic jazz vibes.

Two of Doc's fellow "Tonight Show" band alumni were electrifying. Ernie Watts breathed fire through his tenor sax, as his frantic be-bop runs on "Jumping at the Woodside" and "Sax Alley" provided flavorful counterpoint to the slamming swing and blues of the rest of the band.

And drummer Ed Shaughnessy -- he of the mutton-chop sideburns fame -- was both a lovable goof and a dynamo on percussion. Along with tossing out some comic Martian-meets-Elmer Fudd scat singing, Shaughnessy accomplished what few drummers today, in jazz or any genre, can do: He actually made his drum solos swing.

But the entire band rocked. So, when a thunderous crackle blasted through the sound system on the next-to-last song, it seemed to be the natural result of the group's high octane. The band hardly needed the out-of-action microphones on the concluding song, Count Basie's "One O'Clock Jump."

Too bad the auditorium was only about one-third full. For anyone seeking hot jazz 'n' blues, Doc had the cure Wednesday night.

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